the chiefest among ten thousand his head is as the most fine gold his locks are bushy black as a Raven his eyes are as the eyes of Doves by the Rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set his cheeks are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers his lipps like Lillies dropping sweet smelling myrrhe his hands are like gold Rings set with the Berill his belly is as bright Ivory overlaid with Saphires his legs are as Pillars of Marble set upon sockets of sine gold his countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the Cedars his mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely This is my Beloved c. I 'le praise thee with uprightness Psal 119.7 164. Septies i. e. Saepissime Psal 148. I 'le praise thee seven times a day Yea David thought seven times a day too little and therefore he call'd in all the Creatures of Heaven and Earth Air and Sea to praise God the Dragons in the deep must not be silent True Lovers praise God as much as they can they exalt God to the utmost of their power and then from a sense that God is above all their praise they would have every thing that hath breath to praise the Lord yea and inanimates too for to joyn in the Quire Doth Praise wait for God 11. Did you love God Not loving all of God and Christ Jo. 13.34 35. 1 Jo. 4.19 you would love every thing of God Do you love his Omnipresence his Justice his Holiness True love to Christ sticks not barely in the Person of Christ but reacheth to all that have an Union with him Do we love Christ mystical as well as personal Are we of Catholick Spirits The Apostle is peremptory and brandeth them all as Liars that pretend to love God and Christ and do not love Saints 12. Not thirsting after nearer Communion True Lovers of God thirst after nearer Commuion with God My Soul followeth hard after thee The Soul still encroacheth upon God Let me see thy Glory saith Moses though he saw more than Mortals were commonly permitted to behold yet Semper avarus eget Much would have more Psal 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God A true Lover of God is under an holy impatience till he ceaseth to see darkly in a glass He would fain see with open face O! saith such a Soul the distance between Christ and me is too great O! I cannot but groan earnestly when I consider I am absent from the Lord whilst present in the body Lord saith Austin I will dye that I may enjoy thee I will not live but I will dye I desire to dye that I may see Christ and refuse to live that I may live with Christ The broken Rings Contracts and Espousals content not the true Lover but he longs for the Marriage day Here are Clouds that oft pass 'twixt God and my Soul O that I were above them Here if I see and enjoy the fear of losing so sweet a sight abates the comfort of fruition but then welcome an eternal day that shall never have a night 13. Being weary of his Commands If you loved God his Commandements would not be grievous to you Love cannot be easily poised Love hath a kind of Almightiness in it so that heavy burdens are made light 1 Jo. 5.3 and almost impossible things become feasible But of how many things do we say Mal. 1.13 What a weariness is it How are you haled by Governours by Conscience and by the terrours of the Law unto Duties How like Slaves chain'd to Gallies you must work though sore against your wills Did you love God you would count nothing tedious Hebr. 12.1 save dulness in his service Sin would only be the Weight O the burden of Formality Pride c But O the pleasures of the wayes of God! His yoak is easie his burden light 14. Did you love God Not fearing how it goes with Gods affairs 1 Sam. 4.13 you would be jealous lest it should goe ill with Gods affairs The loving Mother trembleth lest the Child should suffer when she is off from it But alas how few Elies are there whose hearts tremble beause of the Ark Do you really fear lest Formality should eat out the Power of Godliness lest Traditions should make void the Commandements of God lest your Trades should spoyl your Communion with God You may easily imagine Considerations tending to humble us for want of Love to God the want of Love to God must needs be a great Provocation O to pretend love and yet Judas-like betray Christ with a kisse to say Hail Master and yet preferr a base Lust before him What an indignity is it to the Husband that the Wife loves the Slave before him The World should be your Slave but it hath got the heart the bosome and Christ must stand without doors till his locks are wet Cant. 5. O that God should stoop so low as to love you as to make you the birth of his everlasting counsels of love that he should carry you long in the womb of his eternal purpose This goodly Fabrick of Heaven and Earth had not been erected but as a Stage whereon he would shew his love to you And did he not in the fulness of time purchase you by the blood of his First-born yea of his only begotten Son and for this very end that he might gain your love as well as reveal his own love And yet that your love should not be like an Eccho which returneth what it receiveth Sure you should cast back Gods beams of love upon himself This is all he expects My Son give me thine heart All the command he layes upon you Mat. 22 36 37. is in one word To Love him God might have commanded our Children to be sacrificed to pass through the Fire O! what a favour is it to love the Lord That God will honour us so farr as to suffer us to love him And yet we love any thing any sordid base Lust rather than God We would count it a favour if a Prince would give us a privy Key to come to him when we please Here is more honour we may have recourse to the bosom of God when we will God would have us to love him with all the heart with all the soul The Lord would not lose one grain of our love O that we should deny him that which he with reverence be it spoken and thought on is so fond of Deut. 10.12 And now Israel what doth the Lord require of thee but to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul God requires not now Cattle upon a thousand Hills or Rivers of Oyle Only Love me Love me Love me heartily constantly chiefly and yet we deny him our
Abscondit quod est quod non est mentitur Bern. but are another thing they appear to be the greatest Worshippers of God but are the greatest dishonourers of God They profess that they know worship God but in works they deny him being abominable and dis-obedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1.16 The Hypocrites piety is not piety his religion is not religion but doubled and trebled iniquity Quis non itascatur videns homines ore Deum confitentes negantes moribus Seculum verbis et non factis renunciantes Aug. Evidenced in their Professing Should not this make us to tremble at the greatness of the hypocrisie of this age O! How many Apothecaries-boxes are there that have golden titles and nothing in them How many curious pictures drawn to life but look behind them and there is nothing but dust and cobweb How many have glorious signs but within ill customs an Angel for a sign a Lamb for a sign but within are Devils and Cheats How many have taken up Religion under pretence of its being an help to Heaven when they have made it a means to get earth to get custom credit c. Hence when they cannot compass but rather obstruct their worldly designs Farewell to Religion if it contribute not to their private ends they give it up again O! How few have embraced Christ and Truth for Christ's sake for Truth 's sake Have not most embraced Christ and his Gospel as they have Servants for what they can do for them and adhered to Profession as the Ivy to the Tree not because it loves it but sucks from it and is succoured by it Have they not alwayes worshipped the rising and not the declining Sun How few own the declining sinking cause of Christ How hard is it to perswade men to stand for truths that stand not with their advancements and accommodations Hence many now stand idle as the people in the Market place who would not go into the Viâ—â—yâ—â—d 〈◊〉 they were hired How few will own any way 〈◊〉 be Christs till they see how it stands with their secular advantages How many Newters now who once were forward Professours If we entertain him saith they the Romans will come and take away our place and Nation We find the truth of a learned mans Assertion He that will serve God for the world will serve the Devil for the world He that serves God for a little will serve the Devil for more where he can mend his wages he will give his service How many Professours have with Absolon gone to Hebron to worship but all the while have promoted their own ambitious designs raising even sedition in order to their earthly advantages In how many hath the tongue prayed Speaking to God when not the heart These have been much in fasting and prayer and have thought themselves much wronged that they were not heard Isa 58.4 but God gives them a reason Ye shall not fast as ye do to make your voice to be heard on high The Hypocrite may lift up his voice strongly and yet never be heard his voice for want of the heart therein may never come up to Gods dwelling place his Prayers many times fall back upon his own face like spittle against the wind How many have used Prayer as an hook to draw in outwards from God and Man but not as a sword to destroy their lusts How many have cryed vehemently unto God for assistances in their duties chiefly if not solely to get themselves a Name in the Earth How many tell God with a brazen face that they love him yea that they love him with all their hearts whereas they love not God but God's somewhat of God they flatter God with their lips they delight not in his presence yea all the while they are serving their turn on God Fain they would partake of Gods bounty of Gods protection and Gods pardons but they love neither God nor his Image when God puts them to express their love by self-denyal then you shall see the graves to be full of rottenness they hate to spend and to be spent for God How many tell God that they are troubled for offending him when they are only troubled that he is displeasing them and about to correct them for their abuses of him They will cry out in Prayer O my carelesseness c. But alas It is not Sin but the Judgements of God and the consequents of Sin that disturb them How many will tell God twenty times over they are ashamed of their Sins and within one hour after they are not ashamed to commit them again no more ashamed are they than the Sow is to lye tumbling in the Mire How will many tell God they fear him and his Judgements when indeed and intruth they fear neither witness their frothy loose spirits and conversations How will they tell God that all the world is but as a drop of a bucket in comparison of his Majesty and that all flesh is contemptible when weighed with him and yet they fear the wrath of Man more than the wrath of the Almighty God How many will tell God that they are contented with all his will and yet their hearts are full of inward risings against the Providence of God How many tell God they believe in him trust to his Mercy depend on Christ and O! forsooth all their cares are cast on Christ when God knows their care and work like Bees is to get honey to their hives They mind earthly things and are scraping the dust of the Valleys to themselves as if they thought it their wisdome rather to lean to their own providing than to be beholding to the Lord and dye beggars How earnest are some in their cries to God for victory over Sin but secretly hate it not And doth it not appear in this for that having directed their Prayers to the Lord they do not look up to see whether the corruption be more mortified and their love to it abated yea or no How have the speeches of many in their converse one with another bewrayed their hypocrisie To men concerning things How do many covet mightily to insist on the refinements of hypocrites and thereby they escape as they hope at least from being judged such themselves How have some studied to disgrace Sin to the utmost and yet secretly cherished that which they laboured to make odious to others In company they cry down self-love hypocrisie formality earthlyness and pride but privately they keep up these and make them their companions How Zealous have some been in discourse for the Protestant Faith How have they cryed out against errours and for a reformation but can tell no more of a work of God upon the heart than an Heathen How have some contended for opinions and have put a jus divinum upon such and such a way and counted others as little better than Pagans that would not submit to their way and yet by
mind If all were as unmercifull as some of you they and their Children would swoon away in desolate Wildernesses Remember Hagar and the Child Did God pity that Egyptian and have you no pity on your poor Ministers Are not you so far from the Macedonian bounty 2 Cor. 8.3 of giving above your power that you will not afford them your superfluities Who is there that redeems from his table from his belly from his cloaths to cover these naked shoulders and to fill these empty bellies Doth not Baruck's sore run upon you you trade for your selves seek great things for your selves and send away your spiritual Fathers with I pray God bless you c. be ye cloathed c. but do not give according to their necessities and your abilities O! Jam. 2.15 16 17. How dwelleth the love of God in you Boast what you will of your Profession and Faith your Faith without Works is but dead CHAP. XXXIV Want of Love among Professours AS touching brotherly love saith the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians you need not that I write unto you A complaint of the want of love among Christians 1 Thes 4.10 for ye your selves are taught of God to love one another and indeed you do it But may not I say to English Professours As touching brotherly love you need that I write unto you for you are not taught of God The fire of brotherly love saith one is almost ready to goe out scarce any spark of it yet remaining among us but instead of the fire of love the wild-fire of passion rageth vehemently and is predominant Many live as if they had been born on the Mountains of Bether the Mountains of Division and as if they had been baptized in the Waters of Meribah the Waters of Strife Oh! that my head were waters and mine eyes fountains of tears 〈◊〉 weep day and night for the want of love in the Christians of this generation towards one another How common hath it been to confine our love to our own party We have not loved all the Saints Col. 1.14 How few Bucers are there How few love all in quibus aliquid Christi vident in whom they see any thing of Christ Many even hate those that differ from them though but in Circumstantialls Others though they are ashamed to profess their hatred upon such an account Prov. 26.26 yet cover their hatred by deceit till their wickedness can be hid no longer but shew'd before the whole Congregation The Devil began his Legerdemain this way by covering his Enmity with pretence of Friendship What saith the Apostle Let love be without dissimâ—lation Rom. 12.9 Psal 12.2 1 Pet. 1.22 1 John 3.18 But alas With a double heart how do Professours speak How few have turified their Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the Brethren Most love in word and in tougue only but not in deed and in truth Many like your Feather caps humble Servant pretend love but it never appears above-board it is Dear Friend Good Soul but their hearts are not with you Evidenced in calling for Fire from Heaven against those of different perswasions In order to the convincing of us of our guiltiness herein O that our Consciences may be suffered to give in full answers to the following Queries 1. How have we call'd for Fire from Heaven like the two Disciples when we have thought our selves dishonoured in that others have not given such a reception to our wayes and practises in Religion as we expected Have not Magistrates been instigated against godly persons if of a different perswasion from our selves Have not we wished others that divided from us in some Circumstances of Worship even banished Have we not cryed out the Land is not able to bear them Have not we been glad when such were put out of all Offices and Places of Profit And have not some thought it good service to God if they had been kill'd Whilst some under colour of mercy and tenderness oryed for a general Toleration even of blasphemy Others ran into the other extream and would endure nothing that they deemed an Errour Even to this day if men scruple at the lawfulness of some Ceremonies and Gestures in the Service of God they are thought worthy not only to be cast out of the Church but to be delivered over to the Secular Magistrate for Imprisonment and Confiscation of Goods at least So much is Pauls meekness forgotten and un-imitated who though zealous against the Faith-destroying Errours of Hymeneus and Philetus yet would have much forbearance for others when doubting of the use of Meats and the Jewish Ceremonies Baxters Saints Rest Edit 8. part 1. chap. 7. p. 111. I read indeed in Pagan Writers saith one that Christians were as cruel as Bears and Tygers against one another c. But I had hoped that this accusation had come from the malice of Pagan Writers Little did I think to have seen it so farr verified c. Lord What Devils are we Unsanctified when there is yet such a Nature remaining in the Sanctified Such a Nature hath God in these dayes suffered to discover it self even in the Godly that if he did not graciously and powerfully restrain they would shed the blood of one another and no thanks to us that it is not done 2. un-Sainting of them upon that account Hildersham on Psa 51. P. 691. To facilitate the destroying of such without remorse Have not we blotted out the reputation of their holiness and represented Saints even as Devils It is utterly a fault mong you said one of our English Worthies formerly that the difference in judgement and practice about the Ceremonies of our Church hath caused such strangeness and alienation of mind and affection between such as do truly fear God both Ministers and People We are so farr from receiving esteeming loving and maintaining society one with another notwithstanding this difference of judgement about these things that we are apt to despise and judge one another for it and doubt whether there be any truth of grace in them that differ from us in these things Surely saith the one side the indifferency and lawfulness of these things is now so clearly manifested as these men must needs be willfully blind that do not see it Nay certainly they cannot chuse but see it well enough and were it not for a carnal respect to their credit with the people among whom they have gotten a great Name and Applause by standing out so long they would doubtless conform themselves And surely saith the other side the utter unlawfulness of these Ceremonies is now so clearly revealed that these men must needs be wilfully blind that see it not Nay they do see it well enough and were it not for a carnal respect they have unto their worldly peace and estate they would never use them certainly they sin against their Conscience in observing of them And
and Atheisme grows exceedingly O that mine head were as waters c. CHAP. X. Their want of Love to God 3ly WAnt of Love to God is another great branch of ungodliness abounding amongst Professours Professors want of Love to God in Christ This is â—o great a branch of ungodliness that Jesus Christ hath reduced all the Commandements of the first Table concerning the Worship of God to this great one Matth. 23.36 thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and all thy Soul and all thy Might Indeed every one pretends to love God I hardly ever met with a person but said he loved God He that hateth dissembleth with his lips Prov. 26 God may say truly How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me God is loved but not for himself but for what he brings God is used and the World is embraced If God comes empty handed or with his hands full of trouble misery c. Farewell God is loved 2 Tim. 3.4 Job 21. but with a secondary love Professours are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God God must stand by and give place to sensuality therefore they say unto God depart c. They like God whilst they may enjoy their pleasures too whilst they may not be infringed Let but a few things be considered and we will see how much want there is of love to God in Christ 1. Whom we love we are not ashamed of Evidenced in being ashamed of a Relation to him The Mothers is such to her Child and Gods to us he is not ashamed to be called our God But do not we conceal our Title to God in some Companies that hate him How do we throw off our Livery Mar. 8.38 and dare not to be known to have walked with God Remember he that is ashamed of me c. 2. Not troubled for his dishonour 2 Pet. 2.8 Psa 119 53. 158. Not hating Gods Enemies Psal 139.21 Not hating self for not loving God Parents are troubled when their Children are dishonoured and so Children when their Fathers but are our Souls vexed racked with the filthy couversations of Sodomites Where are the Rivers of waters Where is thy horrour because men keep not Gods Commandements 3. Those we love their Enemies are ours Parents Enemies are the Childrens Enemies But do we hate them that hate God yea with a perfect hatred 4. True lovers of God hate themselves for not loving God enough How oft do they thus sigh Wretch that I am to grieve God to estrange my self from God so seldome to be with God to stay with him no longer How can I content my self with these transient glances with these sudden casts of mine eye and to be instantly wheel'd off from my God again O this fleeting mind of mine when will it fix on God and abide with him O this gadding heart of mine when will it center in its true and perfect happiness When I turn mine eye from earthly objects either I am displeased with them or there is some better thing that draws off my mind and heart But dare I say so of God that be is unlovely and yet I have been weary of him 5. Not trusting him Did we love God we would trust him we dare trust our very lives in a Friends hands But we dare not so trust God What would a carnal man give that he had but his life and health in his own dispose When he is poor he had rather it were in his own hands to supply his wants than in Gods for he thinks it would go better with him We trust God for little We think our selves quite undone when we have nothing save a God and a Promise to trust to 6. Not joying nor grieving as they ought How little do we joy in the presence of God and Christ and grieve for their absence Is God all in the want of all and is God the All in the enjoyment of all Can we say shew us the Father and it sufficeth us When we have no Fig-tree left can we rejoyce in the God of our Salvation Can we say Take all Ziba now that my Lord is come now that the Lord stoops to dwell in houses of clay O worldlings take your riches and make the best of them I envy you not I have enough in God Do we so grieve for the absence of God and Christ that nothing but God and Christ can make amends O that our happiness life comforts were folded up in God and Christ Can we live no more without God and Christ than a Beam without the Sun 7 Not thoughtful to please him Rom. 12.2 Ephes 5.10 True Lovers are thoughtfull to please the Beloved But is there any thing that we think less of than pleasing of God A true lover of God is alwayes proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. He is still searching that he may know more wherein he may please God as willing always to be more useful for God What have I to do more but how seldom do we ask our hearts what way may we walk in all well pleasing How seldom do we design for the glory of God 8. True Lovers are open handed and bountiful to God they bestow readily and freely any thing they have on him they will part with their Isaaks their dearest things with Limbs c. Rutherford that man of God wish'd every limb a man every bone a man yea every hair a man to set forth the praises of God When God calls for limbs can we say Farewell to them Are there not some things so dear to us that we cannot spare them to Christ Are we so taken with Christ that our hearts are dis-ingaged from the love of other things is every thing vile but Christ Is all you part from instantly supplyed in the loves and smiles of Christ 9. True Lovers of God are contented with nothing by way of return from God save only love from him returns of love they must have They do not pray save for love they go not in before God for Corn Wine Oyle c. but for love for God to open his heart to take off his mask from his lovely face and shew them the light of his countenance They are not like the Raven that came to Noah more for necessity Isa 26.8 9. than delight Yea in the way of thy Judgements O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early 10. Not praising him True Lovers are wont to praise each other But how seldom do we set forth the praises of Christ Love is witty full of eloquence Cant. 5.10 11 12 13 14 15 16. witness the Spouse My Beloved is white and ruddy
loves O! I hate my self whilst writing this that I love the Lord so little so seldom It was he that made me and not I my self He hath wonderfully formed me and wonderfully preserved me and shewed many wonders in the deeps to me O! what shall I do to love the Lord with a superlative love O I am ready to say Let me love nothing if I love not thee nay love nothing till I love thee O that you would grieve abundantly for want of Love to God! You have past as through the Red Sea you have been as the flaming Bush God hath looked after you as if he minded none but you you have been as the Signet on his right hand nay more you have been engraven on his Palmes and what not love the Lord Shame upon you that you can dote upon the dark filthy dirty World and neglect the Lord of Glory All the Affections you have God gave them when he gave thee a reasonable Soul but for this end that you should place them on himself and not on his Enemy Is it not hard measure that God should be denied Love when he gave you power to love If a Friend sends you Bottels of Wine it is hard that when he comes to you you should deny him a taste of his bounty Believe it Sirs whatever you do for the Lord unless you Love him yea unless you Love him more than any thing else it is not accepted 1 Cor. 13.3 Though you give your Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth you nothing Though you bring forth Fruit yet you are empty Vines Hos 10.1 because you eye Self not God Your most exquisite Services are but pieces of dead Carrion unless they be seasoned with the Salt of Love This People draw nigh with their lips but I abhorr them and their Duties because the silly Dove is without an heart Whatever a man gives me if his heart be not in it I slight it God much more What shall I say The Holy Apostle counts him worthy of a Curse that loves not Jesus Christ If any man love not the Lord Jesus 1 Cor. 16.22 let him be Auathema Maranatha And is it not sad to be cursed to the coming of Christ He deserves it that loves not Christ and he must and shall be forced to own the Righteousness of God in sentencing him to Eternal flames who might have been secured against them had he but loved Christ more than a base dunghill Lust CHAP. XI Their evil surmises of God 4ly Their evil surmises of God EVil surmises of God is another piece of ungodliness found too frequently among some of the more raised Professours even such as have the root of the matter in them I shall the rather insist on this sin because right thoughts of God are the fuell which maintains the fire of Religion without which it soon decayeth and is extinguished 1. Miscalling his love-to-kens Do not we miscall Gods love-tokens Hath not God sent thee many love-tokens by his Spirit to assure thee that he owns thee and delights in thee as his Spouse For thee to question thy relation to him upon every turn must needs be grievous to him how grievous then is it for thee to deny all his tokens of grace and love to thy Soul and to count them but delusions but the works of the Infernal Spirit transforming himself into an Angel of Light To call light darkness good evil sweet bitter the work of Christ the Devils work is ill resented by the Lord it goeth unto his heart You that are Husbands Wives Parents Children cannot endure to have your love and fidelity suspected upon every base suggestion and whisper Believe it God takes notice and laies to heart all your jealousies of him all your base unworthy censures of him 2. How ill are Gods Providences resented III resenting Gods Providences 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.28 Although God hath told you there is a beauty in their contexture that things present and things to come are yours that all shall work together for good that your Providential losses as well as your Providential enjoyments that your changes as well as your setlings your wants as well as your abundance shall all be Sanctified to you yet how few with that blessed man bless the Lord Job 1.21 Rom. 5.2 3. when taking away And with Paul rejoyce yea glory in tribulations God assures you that your sicknesses reproaches wants shall do you good yea death shall do you good all shall be good or do you good all shall be food or physick out of the eater shall come forth sweetness even from Gods desertions you shall have advantages your very thorns shall drop honey shall bear grapes yet notwithstanding what hard thoughts have you of God under such dispensations Didst thou onely accuse thy self judge thy self abhorre thy self it were well but in speaking against thy self thou fallest foul upon God himself by questioning his love from these providences Deny thy self what thou wilt but beware of a denial of Gods love and of the Spirit of grace that hath taken up his lodgings within thee O that all melancholly doubting Christians would consider of this too seldome suspected provocation and unkindness of theirs towards God! O! take up and keep up better thoughts of God what ever his carriage be towards you Though he slay you yet trust in him When will you be as David who though beleaguered with Enemies yet kept up good thoughts of God he doubted not of Gods pitty of Gods favour and protection and therefore I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Psa 3.6 Psa 27.3 v. 1. that have set themselves against me round about Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear c. in this will I be confident In what Why that the Lord is my Light and my Salvation and the strength of my life God hath not spent all his stores he hath enough for me he will not suffer me to be tempted above what I shall be able to bear but will with the temptation make way for my escape And hath not God told thee that the mountains shall depart Isa 54.10 and the hills be removed yet his loving kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of his peace be removed But alas Thou canst entertain good thoughts of God in fair weather Mar. 4.38 but let them fall in a storm then it is Master carest thou not that we perish Thou canst trust in God when he carrieth himself as a Friend and answereth all thy requests and granteth all thy desires but not so when he seemeth an Enemy Canst thou with Paul say I am perswaded that neither Death Rom. 8.38 39. nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord Whilst the Candle of the Lord shines on thy Tabernacle whilst thy bones are full of marrow whilst thou washest thy feet in butter whilst every Mordechai boweth in the gates whilst thou hast dews on thy heart meltings and enlargements in Ordinances so long thou canst keep up good thoughts of God and his love but let the Scene be altered let the Sun wrap up it self in a Cloud of darkness let the rod lie on the back and the Arrows of the Almighty pierce the heart and then not only grace within is questioned but the love of God without I am cast out from before thine eyes his mercy is clean gone Then all men are lyars even Samuel himself But alas how ignorant art thou of the methods of God Heb. 12.6 7 8. Doth not he chasten every son that he receiveth Should not he have liberty to use what rod he pleaseth whilst all are for thy Profit that thou mayst partake of his Holinesse Rom. 8.29 Phil. 3.20 Matth. 20.23 Col. 1.24 Might not Christ have had ill surmises of his Father upon higher grounds than any thou canst name Who art thou to hope for milder usage from God than he shew'd to his own Natural Son If thou art predestinated to be conformable to Christ to be partaker of his sufferings to drink of his cup wilt thou doubt thy filiation from thy filling up the sufferings of Christ 3. Concluding thence sadly of Gods intentions How do some draw sad conclusions from Gods Providentiall dispensations concerning his intentions for the future When they lose dear Relations an Husband or the Wife of the bosome gone a sweet Child snatcht away and perhaps by inadvertency O then no sooner can we enter into the house of mourning but we hear cries from you O my hypocrisie O my formality O this is one of Gods Arrows of Vengeance O! God is beginning his Controversie which will never end till it laies me as low as Hell Whereas you should entertain other thoughts of God viz. That now he is removing the Idols of jealousie now he is weaning your hearts from Creatures that he may have all your love he knew how much Spiritual Communion you have lost by the company of your Relations and now he himself would have more of your company now he would have you to delight your selves more in himself now he hath but dryed the stream a weak unsatisfying stream that you may drink and drink abundantly of the purest Chrystal waters that drop from the blessed Fountain immediately now God hath a blessed design of grace to prepare you for glory he is now making the earth an howling Wilderness that you may long for Canaan he is now leaving you to naked walls that he himself may fill them he is now turning all out of doors that you may have the more liberty to treat with his Majesty with the less disturbance without interruption Alas you know not how unkind and burdensome yea treacherous your Friend your Relation might have been if continued longer to you you know not what a dishonour to God and to your selves he might have been if longer continued in the land of the living and therefore to preserve him from scandal and your selves from heart-breakings thereby God hath in mercy pity and faithfulness removed him taking him away it may be from the evil to come Few put these Comments upon Gods Providences towards them but commonly take all in the worst sense they can 4. Calling Gods love in question for want of Evidences How do some instantly call in question Gods love if Evidences be not seen if they be not fairly writ so as the Soul can read them But may not the money be in the Saeks mouth though the Brethren see it not for a while Yea though the Soul hath had a welcome from God yea many a welcome yet how soon is the Soul so crest-fall'n that it is afraid to go into Gods presence and through the power of Satan and Melancholy duty yea many duties have hereby been intermitted This provokes God exceedingly What When you have had his Stâ—ffe and his Bracelets when you have had such admirable proofs of his Love in sending his Son and Holy Spirit after you to work so great and glorious a change in you coming in the still voice and whispering Love unto you dandling you as on the knee welcoming you again and again to the Throne of Grace oft filling your empty Bottles answering your thousand Doubts sealing the Covenant of Grace and granting and confirming to you all the Patents of Love And yet at every turn have you doubted whether God loves you or no God chides Zion for this Isai 49.14 Let not Zion say the Lord hath forsaken c. 5. Concluding God no Friend because Satan is an Enemy and doth tempt them Are there not some good Souls though their goodness lies not in this that are apt to question the Love of God to them from the blasphemous thoughts and injections that they are harrazed with But what because Satan is your Adversary must God therefore not be your Friend Because Satan doth tempt you will it therefore follow that God doth not love you Were we not wonderfully prone to evil surmises and distrusts of God we would not make Satans Malice a ground sufficient to doubt of the Love of God Doth the Husband love his Wife the less for that she is tempted whilst she defies the Tempter and is burthened with his foul and daring sollicitations O how is Satan gratified hereby Considerations against evil surmises of God He is the great Accuser the great Tale-bearer that seperateth choice Friends He goeth betwixt God and Saints as a Mediatour of Differences to accuse Saints to God and God to Saints and will you any longer be Tale-hearers against God Believe it the false witness which he brings is against him who hath given you wonderful proofs of his everlasting Love towards you When O! when will you complain of Satan in the words of the Psalmist The Enemy hath persecuted my Soul Psal 143.3 he hath made me to dwell in darkness like those that have been long dead It is the Enemy that vails and obscures the work of the Spirit what he can that you shall see it no more than a dead man can behold any company that is in the Room Vault or Grave with him When Satan tells you your Graces are counterfeit your Faith but that which a temporary may have your Graces but moral Vertues O! how soon is your Enemy credited how much more believed than God his Ministers and all the testimonies of Gods Love that are brought you Hence you are one day jealous of the Kindness of Christ another day of the Fulness of Christ then of the Intentions of Christ he means no good to me Hence also you doubt of the acceptance of your Persons and Duties There is a Cloud hangs over my Prayers
farr lest they should see what they are unwilling to see and so be put upon judgeing and condemning themselves for that which they love beyond an Eye or an Hand 5. The sad consequences of the neglect of this duty O the sad consequences of the neglect of this duty By this neglect your hearts will become careless for that they are not call'd to an account as Servants and Factors are wont when their Masters neglect to examine them Hereby Sins will grow bolder with you and the more easily beset you for that you examine not wherein their strength lies and which way they oftnest prevail over you Hereby the work of Repentance will be obstructed for that innumerable Sins which you are daily guilty of will pass away unobserved with those circumstances attending them which make them of the greater magnitude Hereby your uncertainties about your spiritual estate will remain it may be converted it may be not it may be a Son of God it may be not but a Child of Hell it may be a Believer it may be an Enemy to God and â—â—e of Gods curse Hence will follow great dejectedness under every Providence of God no condition will please you whilst doubting and staggering you will be apt to fear whether your food be in mercy your dayes in mercy your liberty yea the Gospel in mercy to you you will sink under adversity for you cannot say the Lord is my portion you know not whether God will be your strong Tower Fortress c. you cannot manage any duty well whilst this lies neglected Mica 6.8 How can you walk before God with an humble heart when you know not what your hearts are How can you serve him with an upright heart whilst a stranger to this duty The very Heathens knew how necessary this was to all their duties and therefore discreetly caused to be writ over the Temple at Delphos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy self Miserable are the disappointments that will attend English Professours unless they fall into a compliance with this duty you will dye deluded like the foolish Virgins you will not know your undone condition till it be too late you lie deceived in matters of the greatest and highest concernment you are cheated hitherto in things of eternity you are vexed when deceived by a Friend when supplanted by a Neighbour O! how will it pierce your Souls to be cheated by your selves When we would exclaim against a Knave we say he will cozen his Father the nearer the Relation the more sordid the Cheat O! but here is one that lies in thy bosome and thou and it go to cheat each other continually Let no man deceive himself 1 Cor. 3.18 it seems we are apt to do so But O! how great will your confusion be when this deceit shall be manifested when you shall see your selves frustrated of all your hopes and the glory your hearts promised you How will you be confounded when you shall say we looked for Heaven but behold Hell we looked for Salvation but behold Destruction we looked to be made perfectly Happy but O how our hearts have cheated us we must be damned we thought we had as good hearts as any as true Faith as sound Repentance as cordial love to God as any of our Neighbours as any Precisians of the Countrey we fools counted their life madness c. O! what daggers and swords will these frustrations be to you 6. We and our hearts shall not alwayes be strangers If you be loth to see how it is with you now how will you be able to behold what shall be seen at the day of Judgement Though you now will not know your hearts though you are so stately as not to speak with them or loth to examine the dirty Corners yet God is coming with his Fan the books must be opened and every page of thy heart will be unfolded for God will bring to light every hidden work of dishonesty God will pluck off the rough garment which thou wearest to deceive thy inward parts which are very wickedness shall be made manifest and then thou shalt be speech-less as if thou hadst a muzle put upon thy mouth as the word signifieth Well seeing murder will out as we say the secrets of the Soul must be brought forth is it not better by judging our selves by a severe tryall and sentence on our selves to prevent the wofullness of the last day Judged we must and shall be is it not then thy wisdome to judge thy self here in thy Closet that thou mayst be judged by God with a judgement of Absolution and not of Condemnation Is it nothing to have all thy unrepented and unforgiven sins published on the house-top made known to all the World Ezek. 22.14 at the great day How will thine heart endure then when the Lord shall come to deal with thee You will not see but you shall see Isa 26.11 You will not retire the World lyes in your hearts Business comes in and takes up all your time and spirits God is about to strip you to ease you of your Callings you shall come naked to the Barr of God you shall have no Family business to distract you a fair tryal there shall be but a sad one for thee Your sins shall find you out Numb 32.23 You have had many Calls once more I call upon you in the Name of Christ to examine your hearts by the words of this Book which you have or shall read And be sure of it If you will not nor try your selves by the Word God will try you by his Works Thus saith the Lord Jer. 9.7 I will melt them and try them But how will God melt them and try them Shall I not visit them for these things saith the Lord v. 9. Shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing v. 10. and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation because they are burnt up so that none can pass through them neither can men hear the voice of the Cattel both the Fowl of the Heavens and the Beasts are fled they are gone And I will make Jerusalem heaps v. 11. and a Den of Dragons and I will make the Cities of Judah desolate without an Inhabitant CHAP. XXI Their Pride BEhold Professors Pride Ezek. 16.49 Evidenced in Irreverence in addresses to God Gen. 18.27 This was the iniquity of thy Sister Sodom Pride c. And is not this Devillish Sin become our National Sin 1. With what a bold and impudent face have we come and appeared before God Who hath sensibly exprest himself in Abraham's words Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes Instead of a reverential fear of God our behaviour hath been stout against God and we have not trembled in his presence no not whilst we have been terribly
sword in the house of their Sanctuary and had no compassion upon young man or maiden old man or him that stooped for age he gave them all into his hand Have not you cause to fear lest you shall also be so given into the hands of worse Babylonians You can judge what is a Ministers competency but when have ye a competency You can add field to field house to house hundreds to hundreds and yet the Horse-leach cries Give Give Yet do not you judge a small stipend that will hardly keep body and soul together a competency for a Minister What is that great service you do for God above the Minister that you should think it reasonable to leave hundreds yea thousands to your Children and that the Minister should be kept so short that he cannot leave them a groat What shall I say to you Let me borrow the words of God by the Prophet Will a man rob God Mal. 3.8 9 10. Yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee In Tythes and Offerings Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me even this whole Nation Bring ye all the Tythes into the Store-house that there may be meet in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of Hosts if I will not open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it O! Restitution to be made by such as have not given what was due from them to their Ministers Do not any longer detain what is due to your former Ministers make restitution of unjust gain as ever you hope to be saved It is not enough to say Lord forgive me I thought it not my duty but thou must reckon how many years thou hast reaped Spirituals and pay what thou owest or Judas will condemn thee for he thought it unsafe to keep what was unjustly got Remember Zacheus he thought it not enough to give over his oppression but when converted he made conscience of making restitution Let the Elders that rule well 1 Tim. 5.17 18. be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine For the Scripture saith thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn and the Labourer is worthy of his reward Here you see double honour honour of reverence and honour of maintenance was due unto your Ministers Here is an allusion to the right of the first-born who were to have a double portion Their maintenace was due from you neither should their maintenance have been ordinary mercenary wages but such as is given by way of honour as well as by way of reward Have not you lived in the contempt of an Ordinance of God 1 Cor. 9.14 The Lord hath ordained c. as before Do not any longer delude your Consciences by crying against Tythes as Antichristian as Jewish Did not Abraham before the Jewish Laws pay Tythes to Melchisedech And are there not from thence arguments drawn that you cannot answer Why do ye not fear lest through the prevalency of Self you should be too base covetous and partial in your own matters O! Give to God what is Gods Deny not your Ministers their dues You owe vaste summs to them which if you detain in this day of their wants God will call you to a speedy account for the grinding of the faces of these poor yea he will make you vomit up such sweet morsels with all the rest of your substance Jam. 5.4 if not with your blood Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your Fields which is of you kept back by fraud crreth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabbath Lydia even enforced the Apostles to accept of her gift The Macedonians beseech'd Paul with much entreaty to accept of their bounty If thou wert converted by one of them thou didst owe to him no less than thy self What thou art and hast should not have been counted too dear for him who was Gods Instrument to pull thee as a brand out of the fire even when thou wast half burnt Say at length with David I will not serve my God with that which cost me nothing I shall conclude this head with the saying of a Reverend man It is a plain argument of a base esteem of God of Grace of the Kingdome of Heaven that a Servant a Factour should have twenty times the alloance of Heavens Factour for your Souls You are not come up to the honesty of the Pharisee Mat. 23.23 He gave Tythes of all that he possessed even of the smallest things of Mint and Annis and Cummin Luke 11.42 And doth not Christ say These things ye ought to have done What were your Ministers more unworthy than the Priests of that Age Their regardlessness of the Widdons and Children of their dead Ministers 13. If you have not been niggardly toward your Ministers whilst alive with you have not you been niggardly towards their Wives and Children after their deaths Verily not minding the Widows and Children of deceased Ministers is a sin that God will remember in the day of accounts David enquired after the seed of Jonathan he evidenced his true love to the Father in remembring the posterity O! when shall love be without dissimulation 14. Their grieving their Ministers Have not you been a very great trouble to their Souls Your Ministers were so affectionately desirous of you that they were willing to have imparted to you not the Gospel only but also their own Souls because ye were dear unto them And is this your kindness to your Friends to break even their hearts who were glad to spend and be spent for you How proudly have you carried it toward them God threatned the Israelites that the Cananites should be pricks in their eyes and thorns in their sides Surely it better became Cananites to be thorns to the Israelites than for you to be thorns to your Ministers How oft have you grieved them to see your stoutness and rebellion against all their Counsels May not your Ministers say as David Psal 119.158 I beheld the Transgressours and was grieved because they kept not thy Word May they not say We have seen your lukewarmness your sloth your earthliness c. and our Souls were troubled You should have been like the Thessalonians 1 Thes 5.19 the crown of our rejoycing but you have been crowns of thorns which have pierced not our heads but hearts You should have refreshed our Bowels been as Cordials and sweet refrectives after all our wearisome labours but have not you dealt unkindly with us and the more we have loved you have not we had the less love from you Have not you beâ—â— more merciful to your Horses and Dogs than to your Ministers You have baited and been kind to those creatures but God knows how after all our toyle
loath your services but he cannot take any delight in your persons yea you cannot be restored into his love and favour without Repentance there is no Remission Repent ye therefore and be converted Act. 3.19 that your sins may be blotted out And what have you no mind to be forgiven your own and your other mens sins Deus noâ— infund it oleum misericordiae nisi in vas contritum Bernard have you no will to be at peace with God and to be restored into his love and favour Are you content that all these and innumerable sins more should be charged upon your Account O then beg of God to break your hearts for and from your sins A broken vessel a broken heart will hold best the oyl of mercy The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God! thou wilt not despise 6. But their Repentance would exceedingly please God and refresh his Ministers Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing your Repentance will be so pleasing and so reviving to your even broken-hearted Ministers Your Repentance will more please God than all your sins have displeased him Though your sins have very much displeased him yet he was loth to depart from you he hath departed only gradually But if you will repent he will readily return in his departure he hath gone as it were a Snayles pace but if you will return he will return with speed he will turn towards you and fall upon your Necks and kiss you and not upbraid you with any of your former miscarriages And O! what a refreshing will it be to your fainting Ministers to see you returning Prodigals Believe it our Chains would be worn as Bracelets and Jewells and our Exiles would be a Paradise to us did we see you putting your mouths in the dust and crying out because of all your Provocations It is your security your seeking great things for your selves your pride your foolish expectations of our returns whilst you and we are so unfit for such a mercy that is our greatest burden and lies heavier on us than the wrath of any save of God Almighty God knoweth who knoweth the secrets of our Souls that we could be contented to be banished from the face of men so that you were delivered from the power of your lusts If you live and stand fast in the faith we live and though we have nothing yet we possess all things joying and rejoycing to see your Zeal your Repentance your Indignations and Revenges against your sins But we is unto us we fear we have spent our Lungs our Time our Studies our Life in vain upon you whilst we behold your benummedness your insensibleness of all the tokens of Gods displeasure by reason of your transgressions And will you add affliction to the afflicted Is it not enough that we are turned out of the Vineyard where we loved our work better than our lives Is it not enough that we are cast forth from among our People and Friends to seek bread for our selves and little ones from door to door But will you have a greater hand in our misery than any others Will you lay the greatest load of trouble upon us whilst others oppress our outward man will you go on to vex our Spirits Have pitty upon us O Children whom we have begotten in the Gospel you call us your Spiritual Fathers you did receive us as Angels yea as Jesus Christ you would have plucked out your eyes to do us good O! now what do we beg not to have your eyes out but fill'd fill'd with tears Gal. 4.15 and your hearts fill'd with sorrow for hatred and indignation against your sins Weep not for us but weep for your selves And is there not a cause Your tears will be our meat and drink a great part of our joy will arise from seeing your godly sorrow Hagar was not more refeshed with her fountain than we shall be to find your heads as waters and your eyes as fountains of tears and you weeping day and night for your own and others provocations Let it suffice you that you have so long grieved us and Christ by your Security self-Self-love Worldliness Pride and Passions O that now the Egyptians that we have seen among you may be seen alive no more Let us not be hastned to our graves by your impenitencies and stubborn departures from God We are troubled to find still among you and upon you those very sins which have laid Kingdoms and Churches wast and yet you secure as if the Lord had powred out a Spirit of slumber upon you those very sins which overthrow the Churches of Judea and Asia are found among you and will you not repent and do your first works It grieves us to the heart to see sins run through you as water through a Mill and you regard it not We beseech you out of love to God to your own Souls and to us and our comforts that you would cease to do evil and learn to do well Be moved with fear and prepare an Ark. The old world would not believe Noah But the Lord made them to know he was a Prophet of Righteousness We pitty your Souls we are troubled to see what confidence you put in uncertain Signs and Prognostications which beget carelessness and security in you and how little you fear the threatnings of most dreadfull Judgements against those very sins you have lived in many a sad thought we have about you whilst we see your fickleness inconstancy stupidity and ungrounded because unscriptural hopes O! return return repent repent that we may be able to say ye are our joy our Crown our rejoycing in the day of Christ 7. 〈◊〉 or â—â—ver for ought they know And Lastly Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins even by what may be seen in this Glass seeing now God gives you not only time to Repent but an opportunity of Repentance and such an one as if you neglect it you may never have the like again When time and the means are married and lodged together saith one they beget opportunity Now time and means meet together to effect your Repentance If this opportunity be lost you may never have another and if you should never have any other your case is desperate Opportunities cannot be pray'd or wept back again Heb. 12.17 Esau's instance puts it out of all doubt In Gods opportunity it is an easie thing to repent but if this opportunity should be lost by you which God forbid it may be impossible for you to repent See Mr. Fenners danger of deferring repentance folio 35 36. God may justly give you up to Judicial impenitency It may be God doth now by this Treatise speak home unto thy Soul now it may be God warms thy heart now it may be God works in thee good thoughts and desires Now is thy day of grace But to use the words of one
A GOSPEL-GLASSE Representing the MISCARRIAGES OF English Professors BOTH In their Personal and Relative Capacities for which God is contending with them by the Sword Plague c. and since the writing of the greatest part of the following Treatise for the Press by the dreadful Fire in London OR A CALL FROM HEAVEN To SINNERS and SAINTS By Repentance and Reformation to prepare to meet God Levit. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Jer. 2.35 Yet thou sayest Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me Behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not sinned LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXVII THE Authors PREFACE WHEN it is a day of darkness and of gloominess a day of clouds and of thick darkness then saith the Prophet Blow ye the Trumpet in Zion Joel 2.1 2. and found an Alarum in my holy Mountain Let all the Inhabitants of the Land tremble Lam. 2.1 How hath the Lord covered the Daughter of Zion with a Cloud in his anger and cast down from Heaven unto the Earth the beauty of Israel and remembred not his Foot-stool in the day of his anger He hath violently taken away his Tabernacle as if it were of a Garden V. 6 he hath destroyed the Places of the Assembly The Lord hath caused the solemn Feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and hath despised in the indignation of his anger his Priests V. 7 Yea the Lord hath cast off his Altar he hath abhorred his Sanctuary the Law is no more her Prophet also find no Vision from the Lord. O that now mine eyes could fail with tears V. 9 and my bowels were more troubled within me O that my Liver were poured upon the Earth for the destruction of the Daughter of my People V. 11 because the Children and the Sucklings swoon in the streets of the City We see not our Signes there is no more any Prophet Psal 74.9 neither is there among us any that knoweth How Long. When we 2 Sam. 6.1 2. like David were restoring the Ark of God I mean the presence of Christ in his Worship and Ordinances what Stumblings of the Oxen have we seen What miserable Disappointments have we met with And what sad breaches have there been made How hath God stopt our way and branded our Enterprises with wonderful remarks of his sore displeasure Hear therefore the word of the Lord Hos 4.1 ye Children of Israel for the Lord hath a Controversie with the Inhabitants of the Land We poor Ministers have pleaded with you till we can plead no more the Lord hath bid us stand by whilest he himself takes up the Controverste O is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Hebr. 10.31 Are you not sensible what Arrows God hath begun to shoot amongst us How many thousands Psal 58.9 Isa 5.25 and ten thousands hath he taken away as with a whirlwind by the Pestilence For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still How hath God shaken our Heavens Hag. 2.6 and our Earth the Sea as well as dry Land How doth he contend still by the Sword And how much precious blood hath the Earth and Sea drunk up For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still O! Come Psal 46.8 Behold the works of the Lord what desolations he hath made in the Earth Every Providence of God especially his more notable Acts hath a reason written upon it could mans eye read it When the Church complained that God was as a stranger in the Land Jer. 14.8 10. and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night The Lord replyes to them Thus have they loved to wander c. The Controversie began on their side they may see their Sin in the Punishment as in a Glass Do they winder I grow strange to them The estrangement began on their part Nothing appears more our instant Duty than to enter a serious scrutiny What have we done Wherein have we offended Lam. 3.40 41 44. Let us search and try our wayes saith the afflicted Church of Judah upon this very occasion of the Lords covering himself with a Cloud that their Prayers could not pass through and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens O! Hag. 1.5.7 Consider your wayes The Lord doubled it Your iniquities have seperated between you and your God Isa 59.2 and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear I find men will easily subscribe to this that Sin is the procuring cause of all misery but I find an aptness to transferr the guilt from one to another from one party to another and though people do even sell themselves to work wickedness yet so predominant is self-Self-love that it sees no spots in it self Ahab is not the troubler of Israel but Elijah Nay a good man Aaron excuseth himself Exod. 32.22 and layes the blame on others The Sin is theirs not mine Men have a natural desire to justifie themselves and their desire is so strong that they care not whom they bespatter or burden so they may but ease and acquit themselves And indeed Sin is such an ugly Monster that no man will own it if he can choose but had rather lay this Child of Darkness at any mans door yea at Gods than Father it himself My Design in this Enterprize is to obviate this Distemper and to bring you all of you to own your iniquity that you may say resolve upon it that you will confess your iniquity Psal 32.5 that so God may forgive the iniquity of your sin My Place and Duty as a Minister though wholly unworthy of that Relation to God and you binds me to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations Ezek. 16.2 and therefore I have descended to Particulars that if it be the will of God I might hit the humour 1 Kings 8.38 and shew to every man the plague of his own heart The Lord knoweth I take no pleasure to rake in these Dunghills I dread the ill uses that the Sons of Belial may make of this Enterprize I expect various Censures from them who should be otherwise minâ—ed but my record is on high that the great Design of this Publication is to reduce Professours to a more aweful humble serious Repentance towards God and singular Conversation before men I thank God for the freedome that a Reverend Brother hath taken with the ejected Ministers Vox clamantis in Deserto and I must profess that since the perusal of that most seasonable Piâ—ce I have had no quiet in my Conscience till I entred upon this Labour Though my bodily Distempers pleaded loud for my silence though I was
never desire any privacy between God and thy Soul a Saint and yet find no errand to invite thee to speak with God alone Sure thou rather seekest to approve thy self to men than to God Thou mayest for a time be the worlds Saint but God will at last un-case thee and present thee before the eyes of all the world for an Hypocrite Mat. 6.5 6. The trâ—e Lover delights to visit his Friend when he may find him alone like that good man who when the set time for his closet-Prayer was come would break from any compony he was in with this handsome speech I have a Friend that stayes for me Farewell Others put off this duty by pretending they pray alwayes every hour they are darting up Ejaculations to Heaven As the pretence of every day-Sabbath saith one comes just to no Sabbath so the continual Prayâ—â— of some carnal Professours is not Praying aâ— aâ—â— Eâ—aculatory Prayer should not hinder but rather fit for solemn set Praying Fire must be kept upon the Altar continually but that must not hinder the Morning and Evening Sacrifice True Christians cannot be satisfied with a bit and away but they must â—â—ve their set meals Others look at Closet Prayer to be at the best but a Free will Offering as they term it which they may offer if they will but will not own it a duty Surely such are little sensible of their heart-plagues or else they would alone one by one make Prayers 1 Kings 8.38 39. Zech. 12.10 11. and Supplications Such either have 〈…〉 Spirit at all or else but little very little of the Spirit or else they would be Praying apart In all my observation â—â—e raines of Christians have begun in their Closeâ— neglects either by omitting the duty totally or by â—areless formal customary management of it The truth is saith a late neat Writer this is the first step towards Apostacy Back-sliders grow first out of acquaintance with God in secret then delight in this duty declineth by little and little then are they less frequent in their visits upon which followeth a casting off the duty and yet they may appear great sticklers and zealous in publick Ordinances but if they recover not what they have lost in their secret Trade they will ere long break here also No surer sign of an Hypocrite than to neglect secret Prayer it turns thee into a Nebuchadnezzar into an Heathen nay into a Nebuchadnezzar Jer. 10.21 a Beast They are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord. Thou pretendest a love to God didst thou love him thou wouldst love to be with him yea lovers covet to be alone where they may more freely impart their mutual affections perhaps in thy family Religious worship of God by Prayer is yet kept up to keep up thy credit with men that thou mayst not be thought an Atheist that thou mayst be trusted an hundred things may keep thee and hold thee to publick duties but herein is the tryal of thy uprightness what thou dost in secret for God and with him when the Masters part the two great ones God and World then is the trial of thee whose Servant thou art but oh when the Master is alone then he is mostly neglected When alone thou art fittest for this duty of calling upon God when the World is shut out then thou hast a discharge from the cumbers of the Earth an Heathen Scipio will tell the I have never better company than when I have no company for then can I freely entertain my own thoughts and converse with all the learned that have been in former ages But thou art called to greater honour to improve thy solitude Joh. 16.32 to converse with God when alone to have thy Father with thee Yea God like a modest lover communicates most of his affections to his people when they are in secret Psa 63.6 when David was in the night watches then his Soul was filled with marrow and fatness not that he wanted Gods presence in the day for seven times a day he praised God but his day-sacrifices yielded him not that marrow and sweetness as he tasted in the night when he was sequestred from all company and business O! the hidden Mannah is the sweetest Cant. Hos 2.14 The Church leaneth on the breast of Christ in the Wilderness and there he speaks to her heart Unhappy Soul innumerable are thy losses by neglecting Christs calls Come my Beloved Cant. 7.12 let us goe forth into the Fields there will I give thee my loves That God should so lovingly invite thee to take a turn or two with him every day inorder to his opening his breast to thee and yet be denied Again When alone and not with God thou art lyable to Sathans foulest Temptations to Atheism Discontent or Pride of heart When the Devil finds the house empty he will furnish you with company enough seven other worse Spirits if worse may be you shall be employed Fear a Rape at least if God be not engaged to be a little Sanctuary in thy Closet and retirements Sathan frequents the high wayes and that Robber takes men aside into a corner and then pillageth them of their treasure He thought so to have dealt with Christ and therefore takes him into a Mountain alone Mat. 4.8 When alone your dangers are greatest therefore should your cries to Heaven be most vehement How few Professours have observed the fittest time for secret Prayer Not early enough in the Closet Mark 13.33 God would have us in this sense Watch unto Prayer God would have us early to tell the world whose Servants we are and that we dare not undertake any business without first engaging God with us Mark 1.35 that we dare not enter on Sathans territories without Christ our great Champion with us This Post should be sent to Heaven in the beginning of the day for no sooner in the morning do we begin to live and stirr but we need fresh succours and Auxiliaries from Heaven True Christians count that the sweetest air they breath in which is the fruit of Prayer and all things relish well with him that 〈◊〉 through this golden Pipe of Prayer and therefore he is up early in his Closet that 〈◊〉 may receive all this way from the Lords bounty and faithfulness Therefore 〈◊〉 sooner doth he open his eyes but he opens his heart to God and before he puts onâ— ragg he must to Heaven in secret Ejaculations at least before he goes to his Closet to pour out his Soul more plentifully before God He expecteth no good day unless iâ— be begun with a good duty and therefore my voice shaleâ— thou hear in the morning Psa 5.3.119.147 in the morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee David prevented the dawning of the morning naâ— he prevented God i. e. his Providences and Favours which he expected he loved to have them in the Channel of Prayer But alas how do Professours shuffle
fear and flattery have soon faced about How will some cry up such and such for most eminent in grace Persons Others and O how doe they love them when all the while self-love acts them and if they gain not by them they will surely have an howbeit to blot them They are as the foreman to praise the rich from whom they hope to squeeze some of their gold but bring up the rear are the last to commend them from whom they expect nothing of advantage by their glavering tongue How much Hypocrisie hath appeared in our declaimings against others sins O! we must not suffer this the House of God must be kept clean it must not be made a Den of Thieves an Hog-sty and cage of uncleanness and all this while their zeal is nothing but revenge a secret grudge there is against the Delinquent and now that an advantage offereth they will have their penny-worth out of him How many are alwayes finding faults Themselves blaming Magistrates Ministers all but themselves This man wants courage and another wants another grace whilst they themselves want all grace as being meer pieces of pageantry How many whining Hypocrites have we that will in all companies especially where Ministers are be crying out against the baseness and treachery of their own hearts and the wickedness of their own lives and rest in their lazy complaints but reform not How severe are some in their censures of sin in others Censuring as Judah against Thamar she must be burnt who will now suspect Judah to be unclean Mat. 7.3 How ready have we been to judge and censure others rather than our selves To behold a mote in others but not the beam in our selves How many censure Ministers for too seldome preaching in private and yet are themselves Sermon-glutted as yet they have not got a stomach so great was their surfeit with the former plenty yea when they have Sermons neglect them or if they attend with their Bodies on them yet have no fellowship with Christ in them We are just like Consumption people apt to be angry and fret if we have not our wonted meals and the Cooks are blamed for negligence and when the meat is brought before us we are even weary of the smell of it How many censure others for being to talk ative Acting better abroad than at home in publick than in seeret ditties and therefore would impose silence upon others because they have neither heart nor tongue to vindicate God and to promote Religion How many are full of perswasions of the love of God and of the grace of God and yet ignorant of the first Principles of Christianity neglecters of Family-Prayer or Closet-Duties They think well of themselves because in their Duties before men they are devout and zealous and carried forth to the wasting of much time but in their Closets they are straightned and put the Lord off with a short Collect. How many like your City Maids goe in their best are neat cleanly and in gorgeous apparel when walking in the views of others but if you follow them home to their houses and chambers how nasty how foul are they How many are there whose Religion lies in their face habit gesture seem demure humble walk with their eyes looking downwards bow with Absolon to the people and yet their hearts full of pride and loftiness How oft even on Fast-dayes have you had sour faces and inwardly light frothy and unserious hearts As an evidence observe when the day ends the Dog returns to his vomit the heart becomes vain or rather the vanity that was smothered and pent up in the day breaks out as soon as the duties are over We can hang down our heads like a bull-rush we can rough cast our faces but it is hardly for a day How hath Hypocrisie followed thee from the corners of the streets to the very closet Seeming to be more in secret duties than they are Thou hast shut thy door as if thou wouldst shut out World and Devils and there hast fall'n asleep or which is as bad hast parlied with the Devil and pampered thy lusts Hypocrisie like the Frogs of Egypt hath crept into thy most secret retirements How few can pretend to Uniformity in their obedience Being not universally obedient Psal 119.6 How many will be ashamed because they respect not all Gods Commandements still they clip the Law still some reserves they will let go profaneness so they may but reserve covetousness they will pray hear c. so they may cheat their Neighbour under a demure behaviour or they will be strict to rules of Justice and equity among men but they will rob God of his honour some of them are punctual to a day to a farthing Blush Reader if thou art short of the Hypocrites stature they will not cheat you with a brasse Shilling but rob God of his due of his due in the Closet and in the Family too How frequently do we hear some desiring to know the least measure of saving Grace Desiring to know the least degree of saving grace and why because they would sit down therewith There is not a surer note of an unsound heart than to be contented with the least degree of grace and not to press forward How generally do men hate to be examined and tried about their state But not to be examined nor to consult with Ministers about their condition much less to follow their directions This is a sure sign of a rotten heart of a painted-Christian paint will not endure the fire Hypocrites hate lancing and piercing work How many continue in a course of Religion and yet their hearts are hardned more and more and they know it and yet will hardly consult with Ministers about their sad condition or if they do yet practise nothing more than before I am confident there are many who make it their business to keep up their reputation among the Saints but have lost and know they have their credit at the throne of grace and though they have their reward the Saints embrace them for Precious yet Christ neglects them and when they spread out their hands all the day long to the Heavens they have no welcome with God Isa 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt offerings of the Rams and the fat of fed beasts and I delight not in the bloud of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats And when you spread forth your hands v. 15. I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many Prayers I will not hear O! Considerations against hypocrifie Isa 48.1 2. What a Controversie hath God with England for its great Hypocrisie We have called our selves of the Holy City and have maede mention of the God of Lrael but not in truth not in righteousness Though you have past for Saints in the account of blind and
Providence and for Conscience sake But alas how few can appeal to the heart-searching God concerning their mercifulness How few if destruction from God be any terrour to them dare imprecate upon themselves what Job did in case of unmercifulness How few dare say to God If I have withheld the poor from their desire Job 31.16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. or have caused the eyes of the Widow to fail or have eaten my morsel my self alone and the Fatherless hath not eaten thereof c. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing or any poor without covering c. then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade and mine arm be broken from the bone CHAP. XXV Their unrighteousness or unfaithfulness in Trading ALas Professors miscarriages in Trading with reference to Buyers and Sellers Alas Instead of Mercifulness Behold Oppression Violence Deceit Fraud c. This is a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation Instead of giving to others that which is our own we deny them that which is their own Instead of letting goe our own right and those dues which in Justice others are bound to pay unto us yea instead of giving more of our own to help them in their necessities which Mercy calls for even not only not to require what others owe us when Providence hath dis-enabled them to pay us but also to give them more to support their feeble state withall behold Injustice in propriety of speech What defraudings is there one of another How do men not only take all advantages of their Brethren to get what is due to them as to seize on a Mortgage when the Mortgage-money cannot be paid or to sue a bond or turn a man out of his lease when the day of payment is mist c. but also take advantage from the necessities of the poor to over reach them to get from them either their houses or goods to be sure what is not their own Have not we grinded the faces of the poor God will reckon for this speedily Look over the Prophets and see whether unmercifullness and unrighteousness ever went unpunished How few are there who mete to others as they would have them to measure to themselves The rule of Christ whereby peace among men would be preserved and much scandal prevented is not heeded by us We do not deal with others as we would be dealt with though Christ sayes unto us Mat. 7.12 Phil. 4.8 All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets and though we are also exhorted by the Apostle to follow what ever things are true and honest and just and pure and lovely We are apt to follow a multitude to do evil what the greater part of the world are wont to do is the rule whereby we steer hence we vary from that rule of righteousness which the Lord hath prescribed through the prevalency of self-love through a covetous humour As to Sellers selling for as much as can be got we are loth to heed what may any whit thwart a worldly interest How common but cursed a principle is it that every man may get for his wares as much as he can Hence men take advantage of others necessities or of their want of skill Hence bad wares are put into mens hands for good wares or else unreasonable demands are made to the prejudice of the buyer would we be so dealt with When men depend upon our honesty and ingenuity to sell them a good pennyworth Over-reaching those that trust how common is it with a glavering tongue and seeming affection to our Neighbours good to over-reach him and cheat him though he reposeth confidence in us How commonly do men demand a farr greater sum for their wares Asking more than they will accept than they will accept Hereby they shew an oppressing mind if their Customers would but comply with them The Quakers will rise up in Judgement to condemn this generation Is it not a foul shame that they by their light within which at best is but the light of a natural Conscience should exceed others who pretend to an higher principle even the light of Grace But O! how do men mind profit more than their own honour and reputation yea which is more inexcusable than the reputation of Christ and his Gospel The name of God suffers not so much when thou art rotten hearted in thy Closet as it doth when thou art a Cheater in thy Shop But wo and alas Men are so set upon gain that they can be contented to be voiced for Cheats and Couseâ—ers so they may but greaten their Estates This is a salve for their soar they cannot be ignorant how the Gospel suffers and how many prejudices are strengthned in the hearts of wicked men against Religion by observing Professours unseasonable demands for their Wares and yet they continue grievous exacters Is it not matter of lamentation that some profess they had rather deal with a Turk or with a Jew than with such and such a Christian And that they meet with fairer Quarter from Drunkards c. in their Trades than from Precisians Rom. 2.24 By reason of you the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles Wherein doth your Light shine before men They cannot dive into your hearts they can only discern your actions They know not what your Love to God is though you pretend much to knowledge yet knowledge void of charity and honesty is to them an abomination How few trade in fear Not fearing Soul-losses even in their gains lest by getting an Estate they lose God and a good Conscience When one told Latimer That he was consened in paying for a Knife double to what it was worth No said he He hath not cousened me but his own Conscience No wonder that Tradesmen complain of deadness in their Familsies and Closets and impute it to their Callings and thereby charge God implicitly Alas it is not their Calling hath straitned and deadned their hearts towards God but their oppression and deceit in their businesses hath provoked God to leave them and then they are in the business of God like a silly Dove without an heart Hath not God expresly charged you Let no man goe beyond 1 Thes 4.6 or over-reach another in any matter because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such The vengeance of God is upon thee in the straitness of thy Spirit in Duties and without Repentance it will follow thee till it hath laid thee in the Pit of Hell How do men labour to ingross all Trade to themselves Ingrossing all Trade by exclaiming against their Neighbours and by under-selling them at one time that they may engage the Buyer to become their Customer of whom they will surely fetch out their penny-worths in the next bargain that is driven How do men boast of their selling their Commodities at
and neglect the one thing necessary Fool that I was to set my thoughts and affections on things below none of which now give me a drop of water to cool my tongue and to neglect the things above O! If I had never heard of Christ and Glory I had been more excusable for my earthly prolings Psal 69.6 O! How have I disquieted my self in vain I have heaped up riches and know not who shall gather them Had I been as faithful to Christ as I was to Mammon O! with what joy might I have removed hence What abundant entrance into the everlasting Kingdome might I have had O! Labour to prevent the horrours of Death and the gnawing Worm of Conscience It is sad when the Sting of Death and the Worm Conscience Prov. 11.4 bite the man together Riches avail not in the day of wrath but righteousness delivereth from death Believe it it will cut you to the heart to think that less pains might have served for eternal Life than you have bestowed for temporal Goods This plague attends the covetous man the more he desires and heaps up the less he is desired and the less he is lamented when he dyes He is like a Swine that is good for nothing whilst he is alive not good to bear and carry as the Horse nor to draw as the Oxe nor to cloath as the Sheep nor to give milk as the Cowe nor to keep the house as the Dogg but ad solam mortem nutritur fed only to the slaughter So the covetous man doth no good with his riches whilst he liveth but when he is dead his riches come to be disposed of Prov. 13.22 The riches of a sinner are laid up for the just How can you choose but tremble at Dooms-day You cannot desire the comming of Christ If the Church cries Come Lord Jesus come quickly you cannot joyn in that Prayer for that your hearts are glued to this present World You preferr Paris before Paradise It is to the Saints loss to be kept so long from Heaven but you count it not so You cannot say Thy Kingdome come What will you do in that day when all the Estate and Friends of Dives cannot relieve with a drop of cold water Riches are like bryars and thornes good to stop gaps but not to lay in our beds and set our hearts upon lest we lye down in sorrow Few remember the Devil's offer All these things will I give thee is the last temptation that old Professours are baited with Take heed therefore and beware of Covetousness CHAP. XXVII Their Envy ENVY is a Sin seldome confessed Professoss Envy James 4.5 but yet much diffused among Professours The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to Envy And indeed Covetousness and Envy are never asunder they are sins against the same command Such as long that what is their Neighbours should be theirs envy to him that which is his and such as envy to him that which is his long to have it to be theirs How desirous are Professours to grasp all to themselves And therefore how apt are the very best to be envious at the power greatness riches if not goodness of others Doth not the experience that you have of your own hearts if you be not strangers at home testisie that this Spirit is stirring and acting in you The poor envy the rich the base the honourable as if they had the less because others have so much Some think that this was the sin that threw down the Angels from Heaven that they envied Adam's glory in that he was made after Gods image and that they relinquished their glory to divest Adam of his To be sure the Devil was restless till he had implunged Adam in the same sin and misery that he was brought into Sure maligning the prosperity of others is not from the Spirit of God He that giveth freely to all would not have us to envy those to whom he gives more freely than to our selves and he that giveth us more doth not envy us for what we have If you have not so much as others it is because you are unfit to receive not because God is unwilling to give Do not we see how this poyson diffuseth it self An early sin it was if not in the Angels as some think yet it was in Eve She envied the all-knowledge of God and must forsooth have at least an equality with God himself It was also strong in the first man that was born of a woman and we still suck it in with our Mothers milk and it seldome dyes till we dye This sinne is commonly among people of the same Profession One Mechanick envies another one Merchant another one Scholar another one Gentleman another one Commander another as Saul envied and hated David because the Women sang that Saul slew his thousands and David his ten thousands one Minister another as those in Paul's dayes that envied him and affected an high strain of eloquence on purpose to obscure that reputation which Paul had got among the Churches And happy had it been if this cursed sinne had dyed in that age but it hath been still working in all ages of the World Is there not a greater promptitude in us Evidenced in detracting from others worth to detract from mens worth than to credit and exalt them To write down their blots and imperfections than to set forth their due vertues and graces If we cannot reach others by imitation we will by calumniation and therefore Luther saith Envious men feed upon the dung of other men They are like flies that love to be upon sores It is admirable to see how dull sighted we are as to the vertues and graces of our Brethren but quick sighted as Eagles to discern their imperfections Mat. 7.3 The beams of Vertue are not seen i. e. not taken notice of but a mote in a Brother's eye is soon espyed Are we not more greedy to receive and spread any thing Readiness to receive and spread defamations whereby our Neighbour is infamed and obscured than we are to entertain and diffuse what tends to his praise and glory And is not this the reason hereof viz. the great desire we have to shine alone and that we would none to vye with us in glory much less to excell us therein Is there not oft-times a secret gladness in our hearts Gladness in their being brought lower when some sad Providences afflict others in their Names Goods Health and Relations that thereby they may be brought to a level with us or to an inferiority in a lower estate When you have seen some Congregation wedged in with a concourse of hearers and yours thin and naked and when some have been cryed up for their purity gravity activity and zeal and when others have greatened their parts or estates and yours rather have been impaired have ye not been ready even to burst with Envy Have you not been glad when some blot hath
try to live unmarried though the Apostle told them of the advantages of serving Christ thereby 1 Cor. 7.32 He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord. Severally The Husbands sins in not loving as Christ Husbands ye have not loved your Wives as Christ the Church though the command be express Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church Christ is faithful to his Spouse I will abide for thee Thou shalt abide for me many dayes thou shalt not play the Harlot Eph. 5.25 Hos 3.3 and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee But though you have not been Adulterers in any gross act yet how oft have you wish'd the bond of marriage were broken and have not you had eyes full of Adultery hath not your love to others degenerated into secret lust Christ is patient to his Church but hath your love suffered all things upon light matters what frowns I will not say what blows Hath not family-prayer been neglected through your wrath Christ gives no occasion of jealousie but have not some of you The Lord searcheth hearts Christs love is bountifull how short have you kept your Wives contrary to your engagements to endow them with all your worldly goods Christ keeps company with the 〈◊〉 of his bosome but have not some of you been more abroad than at home Christ edifieth his Church Do ye dwell with your Wives as men of knowledge Christ doth communicate secrets to his Spouse Are not ye strangers to the hearts though perhaps not to the bosomes of your nearest Relations Christ doth confer often with his Church about the mysteries of God I wish you did so I fear some of you are silver tongued abroad to get you a name forward to speak of Christ but dumâ— at home even to your Wives as well as Children The Woman learns not 2 Cor. 14.25 though she ask her Husband at home Christ gives the sâ—â—â—pest rebubes to his offending Spouse privâ—â—ely and when he gets her alone But do not you râ—broâ—e before Servants and Children Hereby they learn frowardnesse when brought into this relation and at present slight the Wives of your bosomes Christ doth not blaze his Wifes infirmities but so have ye Christ puts the best construction on what his Spouse doth The spirit is willing though the flesh be weak But do not you put the worst When your lusts are quenched your love is gone Christ doth pitty his Church as the weaker vessel if ye did so the family would be the better governed Christ doth sympathize with his Church In all her afflictions he is afflicted but how fretfull churlish and Nabal-like are you when the hand of God is heavy on your nearest Relations Christ doth vindicate his Spouse and is greatly displeased when she suffers from the world but cannot some of you help to deride your Wives 〈◊〉 and not frown when they are wronged and abused Christ doth not upbraid his Spouse with her low condition before he he put honour on her but alas How oft have ye cast into the dish what the condition of your Wives was before you cast your eyes upon them Christ gave his life for his Church what hast thou done and suffered to save the Soul of thy Wife Christ rules his Church not with a rod of Iron but with a Scepter of Love Is your dominion exercised with discretion and love Are all things done in Charity Is she to thee 〈◊〉 a loving Hind or Roe Prov. 5.19 Christ doth not count his Spouse as a Servant but a Friend he doth not domineer over his Church but hath high thoughts of her but how many husbands use their Wives hardly better than Servants Christ notwithstanding keeps up his authority over his Church but do not many Husbands loose it through too much uxoriousness and make themselves contemptible by yeilding to their Wives as Adam to his whence came at first all sin disorder and misery into the world How did Solomon fall Christ yeilds to many of his Wives petitions and suits to him but many are worse than the Heathen was to his Wife He said unto her What wilt thou Queen Esther Esth 5.3 and what is thy request it shall be even given thee to the half of the Kingdom The poor Wife must use the mediation of others to have her desires accomplished When Christ doth command his Wife his Church he doth it mildly We pray you in Christs stead But many Husbands imperiously enough too much God knoweth Philem. v. 9. when for loves sake they should rather intreat Christ doth love his Spouse though he gains nothing by her but alas How many are severe enough to their Wives when they fail of that Estate c. that they expected from them As Husbands fail so do Wives Wives miscarriages in not loving their Husbands as the Church Christ Eph. 5.24 Psal 73.25 even as the Church is subject unto Christ so should ye have been to your own Husbands in every thing But how have ye affronted your Light The true Church of Christ loves him inwardly as well as outwardly so should ye have loved your Husbands but alas How little have ye shewed the union betwixt the Church and Christ by your affections The Church loves Christ more than Angels Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee But how many Wives are commending others Husbands more than their own If my Husband were thus and thus c. Thy Husband should be to thee the most precious of all persons the most lovely in thine eyes Not parts and gifts but the good pleasure of God should be the ground of this special love The Church honours Christ above all other persons in the world but have not some of you mean low and base thoughts of your Husbands The Church is subject to Christ in all things but will not some of you wear what you please goe where you please eat what you please and employ your selves in what you please Yea though contrary to your Husbands just commands and meek entreaties The Church fears Christ so should Wives I say not either should with a slavish but both should with a reverential fear Remember Michal 1 Chron. 15. ult She despised her Husband in her heart She did not exprefs her slighting of him as many do in words and she had no Child unto the day of her death God took the Husband's part and put a remark of displeasure upon that her saâ—ciness For slighting the Ordinance of God her Head though but in her heart God plagued her in her Womb with barrenness The Church loves Christ more and more but O the decayes of Womens affections to their Husbands Partly through levity and partly through age and partly through cross Providences Prov. 2.17 Whereas thou shouldst have kept the Covenant of thy God The
neglected to talk of what you have heard Have not some Not talking of it as soon as dismiss'd from the Sermon fallen into impertinent discourses about news and trifles or into worldly business Mat. 13.7 22. and so the thornes choak'd all the convictions which they received under the Ministry They consider not that the Word they have heard hath been the savour of life or of death 2 Cor. 2.16 and that every one that goes from a Sermon goes off either with God or the Devil in his company Have not you been hearers of the Word only Not practising it Jam. 1.22 and not doers of it Have not you so deceived your own selves Your Ministers have prest you to secret Prayer and to constancy in it but have not you gone away and continued in the neglect of that wherein the power of godliness and heart-sincerity mainly consists Blessed are they that hear the Word of God Luke 11.28 and keep it i. e. that are good Practitioners that have a conscionable care to regulate heart and life according to what they hear and know They are rather blest than the Mother of Christ was for bringing him into the World Christ puts a rather upon the good Practitioner than upon the Virgin Mary But alas Let it be for a Lamentation that so many Professours have been for hearing but for doing only what they listed Amos 8.5 6 7 8 9. Saying When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell Corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat Making the Ephah small and the Shekel great and falsifying the Ballances by deceit That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the Wheat The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob Surely I will never forget any of their works Shall not the Land tremble for this c The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Mat. 21.43 Luke 12.43 and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof But Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing When did you find the Glasses to discover and amend your Spots Have you been cast into the Form of the Doctrine which ye have received Have you obeyed from the heart the Form of Doctrine delivered to you Hath your profiting appear'd answerable to the many months and years you have sate under the Dews of Heaven What do you know more than you did before What do you believe love and hope for more than you did Have your hearts and lusts stooped more and more to this Scepter of Christ Believe it Sirs If Sin be not more odious and Christ more sweet and precious after you have been in the Shepheards Tents you have lost your hearing hours yea contracted more guilt to your Souls That you have not been chang'd from glory to glory is a great stain to the Ministry and a great ground of sadness to the poor Ministers who fear they have laboured in vain And yet have not you been such unprofitable hearers that Seekers Ranters and Quakers have took occasion to cry down the Office of the Ministry as a Cheat as an old Almanack out of date because they have seen how unsuccessful the labours of Christs Ministers have been upon your Souls If you had come down from these Mounts with your faces shining if you had received more of God upon your hearts and lives you had more credited the Ministry and put to silence these foolish men What shall I say A worse Famine is coming on Professours than what happened to Egypt and if you have laid up no store what will ye do in the years of lean Kine 7. Have not you greatly miscarried Their miscarriages as to consulting with their Ministers Mat. 16.19 as to consulting with them Though one great work of your Ministers was to deal personally with your Souls and God intrusted them with the power of binding and loosing doctrinally at least and hath promised to loose in Heaven what they loosed on Earth and to confirm the Word of his Servants Isa 44.26 and perform the Counsel of his Messengers yet how little weight have you laid upon their judgements Have not you more credited the Physicians opinion of your Bodies Laying little weight on their Judgements Not consulting with them at all and the Lawyers about your Estates than you have your Ministers concerning your Souls How seldome are Ministers consulted with about the business of the Soul and Eternity Will not they in the Acts rise up to condemn this Generation They repaired to Christs Ministers with Men and Brethren What shall we do to be saved Acts 2.37 But alas How many have sate 30 40 50. Years under a Minister and never advised with him what to do They have been no more moved Through hard Heartedness Bride than the Rocks were that Bede preached to Or else through the Pride of their hearts they have thought to heal themselves They have been so puff'd up with their own knowledge that they have not cared to hear what their Ministers could declare unto them If they be to take a Journey they will ask the Way of every one they meet but so unreasonably consident are they of their knowing the Way to Glory though there be many Wayes Prov. 14.12 that do indeed lead down to Hell yet seem the right Way to Heaven that they will not so much as ask the Way thither-ward of any Guide Prov. 26.16 The Fool is wiser in his own conceit than seven men thas can render a reason Or else they have thought as well of their Souls as some doe of their flesh Thinking the wound will heal of it self that the wound will heal of it self And hath it not so done no body knows how Can you tell how the troubles and impressions made by the Ministry in your own Souls have worn away have not Ministers sound after the House hath been swept and garnished that seven worse Spirits have entred into the Souls of many convinced and terrified Professors and their latter end was worse than their beginning Many saith famous Hooker in a stupid kind of sottish senselessness wear out the blow and so wast away to nothing as many out of sorrow have become like senseless blocks How oft hath Satan like a Cut-purse drawn thee into solitudes disswaded thee from going near thy Minister that he may rob thee of thy Convictions and the better to effect this hath he not perswaded thee to look on the Minister as proud high scorning to condescend to hear thy Soul grievances and complaints whereas he hath many and many a time with the greatest importunity beg'd this trouble of dressing thy sores If you have consulted with your Ministers Not consulting with them soon enough Acts 24.25 have not you delayed going to these Soul-Physicians When the wound was newly given and bleeding you should have
what truth of grace can there be in them that are willfully blind and for carnal respects doe thus sin against their own Conscience Thus do both sides grosly and dangerously erre and sin against their Brethren 1 Cor. 8.12 And when ye sin so against the Brethren ye sin against Christ For the experience of all times and of this present age proveth evidently that there be of both sides that fear God unfeignedly and in the whole tenour and course of whose conversation the life and power of true godliness doth manifestly appear And if thou do not see this who-ever thou art that art most bitter and violent of either side then art thou certainly thy self most willfully blind And I do assure thee in the Name of the Lord and by good warrant out of his Word that if thou canst not unfeignedly love every one that truly feareth the Lord whether he conform or not conform If thou canst not bewail and strive against these hard conceits thou hast been wont to entertain against such thou canst have no comfort at all in thine own estate before God Thus far he that was in his time Englands best Preacher And is the matter any whit amended now O! How have Professors spoken all manner of evil against those that have differ'd from them in circumstances Have not they publikely railed one at another What filthy Names have they given one another Schismaticks Rebels Dividers Peace-breakers enemies to the State c. even as bid as the Heathens gave the Christians Have not we been so eager against such that all the peoples time hath been swallowed up in invectives of one party against another Have not we been cooled and blunted and lost our zeal in matters of greatest moment by letting out our zeal against the supposed errours of our Brethren 3. Backbiting them Levit. 19.16 Deutr. 27.24 Rom. 1.29 30. Prov. 10.12 If we have not been guilty of Un-sainting them yet how little have we heeded the commands of God against back-biting Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among the people Cursed be he that smiteth his Neighbour secretly When the Apostle would set forth the great abominations of the Gentiles he saith they were whisperers and back-biters Were there love it would cover all sins Whom we love we are wont to commend and praise but instead of this how do we speak against those that differ from us behind their backs though we speak fair to their faces O abominable Hypocrisier Have not some commended an action to the face of the man and presently in another place and company censured the same whom we love we would have others to love but by back biting we seek to draw off others also from their duty Herein O! how do we serve the Devil who is the great mediatour of differences I have oft thought upon the Artificial kind of Back-biting in Bernards time When they slander Videas praemitti alta suspiria Doleo vehementer de co grande damnum c. Bern. in Cant. Serm. 24. they will fetch deep sighs as if they were much grieved that others should be so and so guilty yea they will say I am exceedingly sorry for such an one that he should commit so hainous a crime when perhaps it was all the while but a base lying report Besides they will charge the Tale-hearer with the greatest secresy when they will take liberty to asperse as far as they have opportunity they tell the fault only to a Friend that will tell no body but Folks of it But why may not he have forfeited the gift of keeping Counsel as well as thy self Why shouldst thou think that the Hearer will conceal when thou the Teller canst not And if thou hast a mind the Brothers infirmities should be hid why dost no◠thou hide them Or why dost thou disclose them to one whom thou suspectest to be no way friendly to the infamed person If a man of a different perswasion live so humbly that we are forced to commend them yet we will surely bring in one Calumny or other that shall blot the person and weaken all our encomiums of him when we have been forced to speak of others good actions how commonly do we lay in a But something or other to abate the esteem that is due it were well done if the ends were right if from good principles if not done in hypocrisie c. and by these insinuations we restrain others from loving proportionably to the merit of the person This is Doeg-like he told the truth but he insinuated as if David had an evil intention and the Priests were in the Confederacy Or we add we should like him well if he were not thus and thus but he is a leaper c. proud covetous c. At feasts if not in more solemn meetings what liberty have we taken to speak against our Brethren When Dionisius feared Plato would revile him in the Academy among his Companions God forbid said Plate that there should be such scarcity of matter to talk of in the Academy that they should talk of thee Believe it we had spent our time better to warm one anothers hearts with the love of Christ than to exasperate and inflame the Spirits of each other against our Brethren What saith Plutarch another Heathen You have matter enough at home and within to busie your selves about 4. Hearkning to backbiters How easily have we entertained a report and credited it against Brethren of different perswasions The love of Mothers makes them incredulous as to any charges laid against their Children Prov. 25.23 but how seldome have we driven away a back-biting tongue with an angry countenance how have we been Tale-hearers how have we encouraged the Backbiter to open his pack how have we received all the defamations he would bring us how have we credited reports upon heresay without any examination Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera Aequum licet stà tuerit haud aequum fuerit Sen. Trag. Prov. 14.15 Psal 101.5 how apt are we to censure and judge before he which is the Accused have the Accuser face to face This was the Romans Law I wish it were the Christians Some of you learnt long ago that it is injustice to determine without hearing both parties Have we loved our Neighbours Name and Credit as our own May we not conclude that God will measure to us as we have to our Brethren Is it our wisdome to believe every word Would not David cut off those whom we embrace We pretend we are not the first reporters but are not we glad the report is spread beyond recall are not we glad that others good names are stoln away and do not we harbour the stolngoods When others set our Neighbours Names on Fire do not we look on and gladly warm our selves by it and cry Aha! So would we have it But when do we go to the defamed Neighbour to hear what Apologie he
can make for himself were we not willing he should fall in our esteems we would have the Accuser and Accused face to sace 5. Aggravating their offences How have we amplified and aggravated the offences of differing parties beyond their due proportion For â—â—fty have not we set down an hundred Have not we represented that as done against light which was done ignorantly and that done with deliberation which was done rashly We have not made a difference between raigning sins and humane frailties between in s repented of and not repented of How have we been guilty in drawing consequences from our Adversaries Assertions and fastning such opinions on them as we knew their Souls abhor'd and yet hardly hath one of a thousand retracted these unjust charges or humbled himself for this great iniquity before God or Man 6. Not silencing Names of distinction Have we silenced our characterising Names even to this very day These have been the Devils-bellows which he hath put and kept to our mouths to blow up our differences to the greater flame These one calls the trumpets of discord and a main obstacle to peace 7. Not endeavouring peace as we ought Did we begin to stop breaches betimes did not we suffer our wounds to be kept open too long and how few yet are there that endeavour to compose the jars and differences that are among us When there were bickerings concerning Moses the Law Circumcision and Sacrifices how doth Paul beseech Enodias and Syntiche How few are like one of the Fathers who was so much affected with the divisions of Christians that he profest himself ready to let out his heart-blood to cement them together I hear many outcries against division and now it is in every mans mouth it is time to agree But ask them what they mean by agreement and you 'll find Conformity is intended they would have you to stoop to them even against Conscience they will not abate an inch of what they have pretended and professed as their principle Few entreat for peace and those few that do indeed endeavour to hinder the strife of Brethren fare no better than Moses He is thought to carry on a design for a party that sues for peace and desires brotherly and amicable Conferences Many cry for peace and commend it but they will not be at cost for it The cursed principle is still harboured that it is a dishonourable thing to yield first but that others must begin to stoop to us Whereas it is Gods honour that he stooped to us first We are loath to sue for peace and to beg reconciliation with those that have been more in the offence than we I find little condescending to remove mistakes and prejudices If we have once offered terms of peace and reconciliation we satisfie our selves therein but have not pursued and followed after peace we have not used means upon means This is a clear evidence of our too much indulging our discords and animosities When there is a dislocation of one Member of the Natural Body if one Bone-setter sets it not right we try another and leave no means unessayed till all be brought into Order again Sure our hearts are not overcome with the love of peace I wish we could say as Luther once in an Epistle to the Pastours of Straesburgh I pray you be perswaded that I shall alwayes be as desirous to embrace concord as I am desirous to have the Lord Jesus propitious to me 8. Our differences making us to mislike good enterprises and discommend what we have approved and that in the whole party Have not our differences come to that height that we have condemned those actions of Dissenting Brethren which before they dissented from us we approved and commended Demetrius of Alexandria liked Origens making himself an Evenuch till they fell out and then he wrote against it Yea have not we discommended some very good enterprises meerly because they had an hand in them Thus some confessed that they had liked many of Luthers Reformations but that so contemptible a Monk should have the honour of beginning them When men are highly inflamed for some one thing they will dis-like all the party doth whilst they are in that passion Besides have not we been apt to quarrel with and mis-like whatsoever is done by a whole society if we be fall'n out with one of that society Not confessing their faults one to another but upbraiding one another as the causes of all our miseries Hath not a whole family sometimes suffered because we have been angry with one of that Family 9. How few are there that mutually confess their faults each to other though doubtless both sides have had their failings in such a time of darkness and temptation But instead of this are there not mutual upbraidings if not to the face of each other yet which iâ— more criminal behind each others backs Do they not impute the cause of all the miseries felt and feared to such and such disorders of such parties Who is so ingenious as to confess and take shame for his own and his parties miscarriages 10. Not forgetting unkind passages How strong are our memories even to this day to retain all bitter unchristian passages of one party toward another And if some have buried them yet are there not some of the Devils agents that are raking them out of the dust to exasperate Spirits afresh and so to widen our difference 11. Suffering Sin to rest on them How have we suffered Sin to rest upon others and why They are not of our Church Thou shouldst not deal with a Turk as thou hast dealt with Christians nor with a Beast going astray as thou hast with thy Brothers-Soul O! Into what times are we fall'n That the Jews were kinder to Beasts than we are to one another if any go astray we help them not to return into the right way if they perish let them perish for any care we take to reclaim them if non-members they must not be regarded Thou shouldst not hate thy Brother in thy heart but reprove him and not foolishly confine and narrow Brotherhood to thy particular Congregation and suffer others to be damned when thou by a faithfull reproof might'st have saved them Whilst you care so little whether God be honoured or dishonoured by others your zeal against Sin in your own bosomes or in your Society may justly be called in question whose Image doth it bear Instead of reproving a Christian that differs from us according to the rule of Christ for any miscarriage that we are privy to have not we let him run on and then told on the house top what was done in secret We hide their imperfections whom we love and faithfully but secretly admonish them but have not some pretended an high Friend-ship to others on purpose to espy their liberty that they may afterwards have an occasion to reproach them and all their party on their
c. How seldome have we had any great conflict for those whose faces in the flesh we never saw Have not we been like Jacobs Children unmercifull enough sate down to eat and drink and forgot Joseph in the Pit Have not we had a late instance of this our hard-heartedness when the Plague so forraged in London and the parts adjacent How little did we mourn with them that mourned Perhaps fear lest the Flying Role might visit us caused us a little to put finger into the eye I must tell you I wish I could weeping that iniquity abounds and the love of many waxeth cold 17. Insulting over them 1 Cor. 13.4 Have not we been so far from sympathizing with them that we have insulted over them Reall love vaunteth not it self is not puffed up But how have we vaunted over fall'n Brethren fall'n into misery that is bad but fall'n into sin that is abominable How oft have I known some high Professours making it an entertainment a banquet for their Friends to speak of the Spots Vanities Gestures c. of others different in some Opinions or Practices from them when their laughture hath given evident proof what contentment they took in the infirmities of their Brethren Ye are puffed up 1 Cor. 5.2 and have not rather mourned c. said Paul to the Corinthians and may not I say so to English-Professours Have not we been worse than Dives's dogs seeing they licked the soars of Lazarus whilst we have rub'd and fretted them and insulted over his miseries 18. Publishing their secrets Have not we very unfaithfully published their secrets We are wont to keep the secrets of those we dearly love especially when they charge us and we promise so to do But how many of us are swift to hear but not slow to speak of what we hear even under the rose Few faithfull Spirits Prov. 11.13 that conceal the matter How many are there that creep into houses yea farther into bosomes to know secrets that they may inslave them to their wills for fear of their publications or else when they have got what they can of them most wretchedly betray the trust reposed in them This makes me even to cry out trust not in a Brother 19. Selfishness 1 Cor. 13.5 Have not we been selfish in our love Charity seeketh not her own Observe it the most love that is going is Publican-love we are careless of their company or to have any intimacy with them from whom nothing is likely to be returned if a Professour be rich he hath many Friends such as they be but the poor is despised of his Neighbour O! how base and mercenary is our love Even your Ministers to whom you have pretended dear and high affections yet if they be laid by or removed at a distance from you that you cannot have them as a pleasant song to you how strange are you instantly to them How soon do you forget them Judas may kiss you but he hath a design upon you Joab may salute but he is working nothing but his own base design 20. Inconstancy Hath not our love been inconstant Real love is abiding but do not we quickly exchange Friends Do we keep them as long as an Almanack to the end of the year Do not new pickt flowers tempt us to throw by the old 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity suffereth long But how soon is our love quenched It makes a blaze but soon is out soon kindled soon quench'd like Children won with an Apple lost with a Nut How have we been at swords point for every trifle Those seven ones one Body one Spirit one Hope one Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all should have been as so many quoines to lock together all parts of the building into one But alas every extravigant or extrinsecal opinion hath broken us and our hearts to pieces Have not we been humourish peevisn lovers Our love is dearly bought and more hardly kept Humour is like tinder as soon on fire as touched no love without conformity in every thing we could hardly bed board or house together unless we all said the same thing we loved only whilst pleased and our humours were not crost but the least unkindness the least difference though our agreemenss were more by hundreds than our differences would quench or at least abate our love Charity is not easily provoked 1 Cor. 13.5 Gal. 6.1 And to fullfil the law of love its requisite in the Apostles Judgement that we bear one anothers burthens But O! ever since I can remember what a rigid imperious and tyrannical commanding of an Uniformity in every punctilio hath there been Though the pretence be love to Christs Church yet if men would consult their own hearts 't is love of their own power and rule and Lordship over their Brethren and therefore the same party of men when in the Saddle when uppermost have cryed for this rigid Conformity away with cursed tolleration c. and when reduced and brought lower have as much commended Charity Love Forbearance in matters less momentous Now when these things are thus amongst us The greatness of this evil shall we sit still in silence and stupidity and suffer the sweet and soft fire of love quite to expire and the wild-fire of passion and contention to spread and prevail without moving a tongue or hand towards the repressing of the one and reviving of the other This were enough to make the dumb to speak and therefore may justifie my writing when I may not speak yea my expatiating a little in venting my thoughts about this great evil and the desires of my heart to redress it Is it nothing to us In its disobedience See Williams transcendency of Christs love Chap. 9. Sect. 3 4 5. John 13.33 34 35.14.12.15.12 17 that hereby we are in a special manner guilty of disobedience to Jesus Christ That all Christians would love one another was our Lord Jesus his dying charge which he frequently inculcated sweetly insinuated and powerfully enforced it as a Commandement not a bare advice and counsel It is a Commandement of Christs own prescribing A Commandement I give unto you It is a Commandement given as a special Love-token in his last Will and Testament It is a new Commandement A new Commandement I give unto you It is a most excellent Commandement in a new Edition corrected and amended from the false glosses of the Scribes and Pharisees and enlarged from his own example Before it was only Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self now it is Love one another as I have loved you This new Commandement is not once only given but given again and again and again by our dying Lord to intimate that as he had one Disciple who went by the name of the Disciple whom Jesus loved So he would have a darling Commandement and that this should be it Love one another Yea he calls it These things as
if this one thing were all things and disobedience to this Commandement were disobedience to all Is it nothing to us that hereby Crossing Christs Prayer as much as in us lies we make the Prayer of Christ of none effect Christ knew the evil of heart-burnings and divisions of wrath and bitterness against one another though we do not and therefore having preached up love among his Disciples on earth he sets upon praying down Union from his Father in Heaven and what he insisted most upon in his Sermon that he enlargeth most upon in his Prayer John 17.11 21 22 23. And now I am no more in the World but these are in the World and I come to thee holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us That the World may believe that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Throwing off Christs Livery John 13.35 that they may be made perfect in one and that the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Is it nothing to us that hereby we throw off Christs distinguishing Livery By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another He doth not say Hereby you shall be my Disciples but hereby it shall be known Nor doth he say Hereby I shall know nor hereby you shall know but hereby shall others know Nor doth he say Hereby they shall ghès and conjecture but hereby they shall know as by a sure and infallible sign Nor doth he say Hereby some a very few shall know this great secret but hereby all men shall know Nor doth he say Hereby all men shall know that you seem to be my Disciples but that you are so indeed Is it nothing to us Representing Christ as an Imposture that hereby we make the Jewes and Heathens look on Christ as an Impostour How can they look upon him otherwise whilst they see his Coat so full of seams yea his Body so full of rents Hereby we hinder the World from being convinced that Christ is sent of God Christ therefore prayed John 17.21 23. Making Christs doath of none effect that His might be one that the World may know that God sent him Is it nothing to us that hereby we make as much as in us lyes the Cross of Christ of none effect and his blood to be shed in vain Christ not only preach'd up Love and prayed for it but also paid for it As he went from preaching up Love on Earth by his Sermon to pulling it down from Heaven by Prayer So he went from praying to paying for it and the Price which he laid down for it Ephes 2.14 15 16. was his Blood saith a late ingenuous Writer For he is our Peace who hath made both one c. having abolished in his flesh the enmity c. for to make in himself of twain one new man so making peace And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the Cross Shall Christ dye to break down partition walls and will we dare to keep them up Shall he shed his blood for peace and shall we imploy our wit and interest to blow the trumpet to War Is it nothing to us Calling in question Gods Promises Isa 65.25.11.6 that hereby we make Jews and Pagans call in question the truth of Gods promises What can they think of those promises that the Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord. That the Wolf also shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the failing together and a little Child shall lead them When the Lambs cannot fold together without pushing at one another Is it nothing to us Grieving Christ and the Spirit that hereby we grieve our dear Lord Jesus and the ever blessed Spirit May we not easily imagine what a grief it is to the head to see the members of his body renting and tearing each other to see heirs of the same hope those that lye together in the same bosom of Election and whose Names are on his Breast and whom he presents before his Father together in Heaven to be thus broken asunder on earth O! me thinks if we had any love to Jesus Christ we should study to be of one affection What Luther said once to the Ministers of Norimberg is very considerable Suppose said he you saw Jesus Christ standing bodily in the midst of you and thus bespeaking you What do you O my dear Children whom I have Redeemed by my blood that you might mutually love one another There is no danger in your difference but there is much in your dissention Do not thus sadden my Spirit do not thus spoil the holy Angels of their joy in heaven Am not I more to you than all your matters of difference How can we expect the company of the Spirit of grace and peace whilst such fiery contentions are amongst us Were the Disciples quarrelling and contending when the Holy Ghost fell on them No They were all with one accord in one place Acts 2.1 Psal 133.10 Where men dwell together in Unity there the Lord commands the blessing for ever God will not saith a learned man sow the precious seed of his grace and love among bryars and thornes the enemies of peace Is it nothing to us Rasing Sion that hereby we do what in utlyes to rase Sion even to the foundation thereof The stones support the building by being coupled together Mat. 12.25 Making real Saints weaty to support the World any longer How can the house stand when the stones are severed when not a stone is left joyned to a stone Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against it self shall not stand Is it nothing to us that hereby we make reall Saints the pillars of the World weary of staying in the World to support it any longer It was the sight of the divisions among Christianss that made Grynaeus Melancthon Strigclius those pious and precious Souls weary of earth Psa 55.6 and to wish and desire the wings of a Dove that they might sly away and be at rest in that place where there is a rest remaining for the people of God Hebr. 4.9 as from all other evils so from this of divisions and dissentions among Brethren It was â—â—e conjecture of one that as Go is first Judgement against the old World was by Water against the heat of Lust so his last Judgement upon the World
unfaithfullness YOu have Professed in your Creed to believe the Communion of Saints You have been admitted to the Priviledges of this Communion you thought it not safe or good for man to be alone to live retired from the Society of Saints you have been inrolled among the Saints in Jerusalem which came down from above you have with some Solemnity engaged your selves to be faithfull to the Souls of your Brethren and yet what an unprofitable Hermit hast thou been in Zion Like a wild-beast thou comest out of thy Den for thy prey to feed upon the Mountains of Spices to enjoy the provisions of Gods house but immediately thou retirest and art no way serviceable to the Body It is a wonder to me how Christians can content themselves with the Priviledges of Gods house and neglect the mutual duties that are incumbent on them A learned man complains of many Ministers that they are but Traditional-Preachers and I fear there are too many Traditional-Christians who are very zealous for the practising of some Duties which they have received from their Fore-fathers whilst they can over-look many express Commandements obliging them to take care as Members of the Natural Body do each for other The Apostle tells us that the meanest Members in the Church yet are necessary But alas How many are there who shut up their Light in dark-lanthornes who immure themselves within their own walls who are so involved in worldly businesses and have so little care and zeal for the house of God that they no way profit no way edifie their Brethren How can such over-look those plain express requiries of Christ by his Apostle Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace Rom. 14.19 1 Thes 5.11 and things wherewith one may edifie another Wherefore comfort or exhort your selves together and edifie one another I wish I could add as the Apostle doth even as also ye do 1 Cor. 14.12 26. Ephes 4.16 For as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church Let all things be done to edifying From whom i. e. Christ the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love v. 29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers Rom. 15.2 3. Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself c. But exhort one another daily Hebr. 3.13 while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin And let us consider one another to provoke unto love 10.24 25. and unto good works Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of same is but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching Look not every man on his own things Phil. 2.4 5. 〈…〉 man also on the things of others 〈…〉 excluded it is every mans work 〈…〉 mind be in you which was also in Christ â—esus Hebr. 12.15 Look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many be defileâ— If they do not over-look how dare they â—â—ntemn all these Commandements of our 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ How can they look upon themselves as no way concerned in these duties 〈…〉 a Lamentation and should be for a Laâ—◠〈…〉 on that so many Church-Members like 〈…〉 of prey slye alwayes alone and through 〈…〉 ritual sloth through a lothness to displeaâ—â— through want of charity and pitty to the 〈◊〉 of their Brethren suffer them to perish in carelessness sensuality formality c. rather than they will labour to quicken restore and save them An Ingrosser is hateful to men But of how much sorer punishment shall ye be thought worthy who ingross your graces your gifts your experiences wherewith a Church of Christ might be edified 〈◊〉 Every man is a Steward Give an account of 〈…〉 But you are Stewards in an 〈◊〉 meaner You are Stewards of the 〈◊〉 the spirit which are given to profit 〈◊〉 How dare ye hide your Talents in a 〈◊〉 You have a greater trust committed 〈…〉 others have You have Souls 〈…〉 to your care for Church-Member are to care even naturally one for anoâ—â— If God hath two Servants and he inâ—â— one with his Lumber the other with 〈◊〉 children and if both be negligent sure 〈◊〉 all suffer the highest indignation from the Lord who neglects the Children What are you afraid you shall have the less light the less grace the less comfort from Christ for that others share with you And therefore will ye turn Ingrossers and Monopolists O! Know the more useful you are to invite the Children to their Father the more you your selves will be inriched and supplyed and whilst you are dividing your loaves God will act at a wonderful rate for you the bread will multiply you shall receive whilst you are disbursing your light and heat will increase by your holy dispersing it 2. Neglecting godly Conference How is godly conference neglected even among Church members What! are you ashamed of your God is the speaking of grace and glory some kind of disparagement to your tongues When Saints come together 〈…〉 precious time is devoured in back 〈…〉 undue unseasonable censuring of 〈…〉 who are not capable of making 〈…〉 esence or else in foolish impertinent discourses of worldly matters Few like the Disciples in their journey to Emaus discourse of such matters as Christ himself joyns with them in and causeth their hearts to burn When do you warm one anothers hearts and sit each other to enter into Communion with God in secret How do many complain of you that their hearts are estranged from God by converses and intimacies with you and that they loose their affections by keeping up correspencies with you and therefore count it their wisdom to retire into their closets rather than mispend precious hours in foolish communications with such barren frothy empty Professors How many weak Christians are there who are not acquainted with the wiles of Satan and they sit down pensive and dejected thinking no condition like theirs and conclude hereupon that they are none of Gods Children whom if you were spiritual pitiful active and free to acquaint them with your own experiences that you have been tempted as they you might succour under their temptations and comfort with the comforts wherewith you have been comforted and ease them by hearkning to their doubts and complaints and shewing them a way how to deliver their Souls Were you of a Christ-like Spirit you would not break these bruised reeds nor quench these smoaking flaxes but rather blow up their graces and labour
make more haste to cure a man that is taken with a swooning fit than one that hath a little swelling in his singer I wonder you are no more affected with the miseries that attend your Unregenerate Friends and Acquaintance who must suddenly be Converted or Damned Me-thinks you should pitty them the more because they pitty not themselves Me-thinks the value that Christ hath put upon Souls by bleeding for them the ransome that he hath given for miserable man and the unwearied pains he takes for the reducement of fall'n man should teach us to open our lips to give some directions and counsels to them who are within a stride of Hell but a breath between them and eternal ruine And yet how are Gods people straitned towards these forlorn and miserable undone condemned Creatures Though they are under the curse of the Law though the sentence of death be past against them and is ready to be executed every moment yet you exhort them not to flye from wrath to come If they will perish they may perish for any spiritual contribution that you will afford them It grieves me sometimes to see how Gods people eat up their own and others time with vain frothy and unsavory words When they should be speaking some rouzing startling words of Hell and Damnation of the necessity of Regeneration of Eternity of the foolish choice men make in preferring the pleasures of sin which are but for a season before eternal joyes of the deceits of the heart of the cheats of the Devil of the malignity of sin of the curse of the Law c. they are talking of this fashion or of that they are perhaps censuring one another but endeavouring nothing for the undeceiving their deluded Companions You cannot but know what advantages you have by your intimacies with them to deliver that to them which they will receive from you when Satan perhaps hath imbittered them against their Ministers so that all Pulpit-counsels and reproofs are lost upon them Besides You are in private with them and you know by your selves how loth how backward you were to apply the truths of God to your own Souls but you as Nathan to David may goe and say Thou art the Man thou the Woman You may hear their pleas for themselves and so have an opportunity to confute them whereas they are reserved to their Ministers though they have been friendly earnestly and frequently invited to a Christian conference And yet how do you neglect all these Opportunities of serving the Necessities of your Friends You pretend love unto them but how can ye see the blind before your eyes tumbling into the Lake of Hell and yet not call on them to return and live It is admirable that you should think you have the Divine Nature within you and yet be void of compassions to these miserable Objects who lye wounded before you where-ever you goe or come O! Me-thinks when you enter the house of an Unregenerate you should thus meditate Now have I an opportunity to save a Soul from Hell to have a greater conquest than Caesar or Alexander could boast of Now may I shew my self a Friend of God by pleading his right to the Creature Now may I have an occasion to make all the Angels of Heaven laugh and sing and all the cursed Devils to roar by saving a lost Son And will you see these wounded in your way and pass them by with an unmerciful Spirit If you see your Brother have need of outward things much more if needing Grace the Image of and Peace with God and you shut up your bowells of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in you You have some pitty left when you see a man fall'n under his horse or strugling for life upon the waters or in an house fired your bowells are turned within you But alas here are they that are dropping into the Lake of Fire every moment that are dragged up and down from one Lust to another by the Devil a sorer bondage by farr and yet you do not pitty them O! Pitty them pitty them Goe over to Macedonia and help them It is a grief to my Soul to consider how dull how useless Christians are in the Towns and Villages where Providence hath cast them If they meet with a man they will not so much as ask whether he be bound for Heaven or Hell whether he knows the necessity of the new Birth yea or no whether he hath left Sin as his greatest burden whether he be willing of Christ and Salvation by him upon his own terms Nay Professours will not so much as counsel them to read a good Book or lend them one if they are poor and unable to buy they will be at no cost to save a Soul that is really of more worth than a World How is it that you account your selves Christians whilst you have no higher esteems of Souls Or how can you have any assurance that you hate Sin whilst you labour not the removal of it in whomsoever you find it If you see men trifling away their time why do you not put them upon redeeming their time If you find them lovers of pleasures why do you not invite them and press them to look after cordial joy and mirth and the true pleasures that are at Gods right hand If you are the Subjects of Christ how can you endure Treason against him and not suppress it I 'le never believe that man ever mourned for sins of his own that doth not for sins of others or that he ever hated sin in himself that doth not endeavour to ruine it in others Souls as well as in his own Be ashamed at your pretensions as if you had hearts of flesh when you have hearts of stones the hearts of Tygers the hearts of Infidels or else you would pitty the miserable unconverted Souls And what if they desire not your help the more need you have to pitty them the less awakened they are out of their cursed security the more miserable and dangerous is their state O! Put on the bowells of Jesus Christ carry not your selves in an high proud way in a lofty magisterial way towards these poor Souls Do not think thou hast discharged duty towards them by running into a corner and backbiting them for blindness hardness contempt of Christ c. but rather help them to some of your eye-salve that they may see Consider you have Tallents and account you must for them and be-think your selves whether you may not give a better account by endeavouring to reduce these poor Souls that are straying to Hell than by letting them alone to damn themselves Consider sadly what answer you will make when Christ shall arise and plead with you when Christ shall say Where is thy Brother Will Cain's answer serve Am I my Brothers keeper Will not Christ reply on you Did not I come from Heaven on purpose to redeem these perish Souls Did not I charge you to
and yet you dare even then be vain and frothy you know the Lord is much grieved at the backslidings of his people and yet you have lost you antient faith love tenderness zeal publick-spiritedness and communion with God yea you have not only known these to be sins but you have spoken against them as evils you have told men how hainous a thing it is to sin against the Lord and yet you your selves have added iniquity unto iniquity What cloak have you for your sins And very impenitently Fourthly You have sinned impenitently notwithstanding all means for your repentance and reducement which God hath most wonderfully vouchsafed you The Lord hath for many years striven with you to put a stop to your sins and to reclaim you from your miscarriages Sometimes God hath gone up to Mount Ebal and threatned you with Sword Famine Fire and Pestilence and yet you have refused to hear from thence he hath leapt up to Mount Gerazim and allured you by all kind of blessings and yet you have carried your selves stoutly and impudently towards all the offers and tenders of grace for your recovery Jer. 3.4 7. God would have healed you he hath said wilt thou not from this time cry unto me my Father thou art the guide of my youth turn thou unto me yet you returned not You have had many of the Lords faithful Ambassadours who have laid siege at you hearts to engage them to the Lord and to take you off from your sinfull wayes but alas all the glad tidings of mercy have not affected you have not won you all the Ordinances of Jehovah have found little place in you have left no impre â—ion upon your Souls Ezek. 16.51 Hos 4.17 You have justified Judah and Samaria in all their stubborness and rebellion against the Lord. How righteous is it with the Lord to call upon the Ministers Let them alone threaten them no moâ—e promise them no more Rev. 22.11 Let him that is filthy he filthy still you have broken through Armies of Ordinances to commit sin therefore Gospel and Gospel-Ministers let them alone judgements overtake them my plagues my curses seize upon them Let them suddenly be destroyed Prov. 29.1 and that without remedy because they have hardned their necks though often reproved God hath waited more than three and three years on you expecting fruit but he sees little save the Clusters of Sodom upon you he hath born with you so long he hath held his tongue and said nothing so long that you have wickedly thought God to be such an one as you Psal 50.21 So that God must needs be a swift witness against you for the vindicating of his great and glorious Name unless you speedily repent and seek the Lord Zeph. 2.3 if perhaps he may be found O! how long hath God commanded you every where to repent not only by his threats but by his judgements which have begun at the House of God What lowd calls have we had Joel 2.11 1 Pet. 5.6 Turn to the Lord with weeping Let your laughter be turned into weeping Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and yet how stupid how insensible how impenitent have you remained to this very day though you have felt the Arrows of the Lord stying amongst you yea though you have been told Jer. 18.8 If you repent it shall repent the Lord of the evil he had thought either to continue upon you or to bring down on you yet alas where are the stirrings of your affections the soundings of your bowell the meltings and relentings of your repenting hearts O what marble breasts and hearts of Adamant have you How few are there mourning for all the wrongs they have done to the Majesty of God Evidenced in their being infensible of their own sins for all the abuses offered to the grace of God Perhaps the fear of Hell and so indeed self-self-love hath humbled some Ahabs and made them crouch because they would not be miserable But how few are humbled for their abuse of the love and grace of God by their great offences Whaâ— the Lord complains of by the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 3.8 of the house of Israel that they would not hearken to the Messengers be sent them but were impudent and hard hearted may be again renewed against England and all its dominions the heart of stone is not yet taken away where is the man almost that can say God hath made mâ— heart soft Job 2â— 16 Though you have born arms against God though you have sinned against the Lord with an high hand though upon self-tryal you may sind those very sins amâ—ngst you which brought Fire and Brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah Psal 42.3 and desolation on Israel yet alas when were tears thy drink When didst thou make thy Bed to swim Is thy beauty gone away for trouble Dost thou abhor thy self in dust and ashes before the Lord Know Reader that the Authors Pen had proceeded thus far before he heard of the late dreadful Burning of London the following lines shew thee what impressions it made on his thoughts and should on thy Soul Perhaps in Rama there is a voice heard Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children that dye by the Sword or Pestilence or are burnt in their beds Perhaps in London and throughout the Land there are some tears shed for the Coals of fire that God hath scattered the last week over that famous and antient City But how few are mourning for their pride worldliness contempt of the Ministers and Apostasies for which God seems to be contending not only by the Sword and the Pestilence but by Fire with us where are the Dovâ—s of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity A â—haraoh may so far repent as to say Take away the Plague but few cry out Take away iniquity Few detest their sins few loath them few are so burthened with them as that they desire heartily to have them taken away Possibly Sin in its effects in its sad consequences as it consines men to the Pest-house as it endangereth health and life as it is the founder of graves and hells as it burns up your houses and goods is someway burthensom but few are troubled with it Ezek. 10.2.7.16 Hos 14.2 as it grieves resisteth and quencheth the Spirit of God as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude and as it kicks against the breasts of mercy And therefore no wonder if Few are to be found mourning for other mens sinnes Though Jesus Christ be crucified afresh Of other mens sins and put to open shame though the blessed Spirit of our God be always vexed and resisted though there be so much Atheism Epicurism contempt of God and his Ambassadours and Gospel Blasphemy Violence Falshood Pride Adultery Sodomy though there be setting up the posts of men with an apparent contempt of Gods holy
razing down our Jerusalem to the foundation thereof rejoyce God will remember them and make them desolate and lay his vengeance on Edom And if any of the bordering Philistines shall deal by revenge V. 15 16 17. and take vengeance with a despightfull heart God knows how to stretch out his hand upon them and to destroy the remnant of the Sea coast and to execute great vengeance upon them And if any of our Neighbours round about shall with Tyrus say against Jerusalem Aha she is broken Ezek. 26.2 3 4. that was the gates of the people she is turned unto us we shall be replenished now that she is laid wast God can soon stoop these Mountains by causing many Nations to come up against them as the Sea causeth his Waves to come up and scrape their dust from them and make them like the top of a Rock Amos 3.2 God cannot bear it that the Heathen should be insulting whilst he is correcting his own and therefore God hath confirmed it by an Oath that he will deal severely with such Mockers Zeph. 2.8 9 10. I have heard of the reproach of Moab c. therefore as I live saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall be as Sodom c. Zech. 1.15 And I am sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction Leave we these to the Righteousness of God and let us return to our selves whilst they are insulting Isa 64.4 Numb 16. Job 31.3 may we be on humbling and repenting Work God is come down and hath done terrible things that we looked not for we have been visited but not with the common visitation of all people God hath strange punishments for the workers of iniquity And no wonder when strange Oaths have been minted of later times that our Forefathers never heard of there have been strange wayes of Epicurisme and Gluttony strange wayes of uncleanness strange unknown fashions in apparel and for Fraud cheating and Tricks of Legerde main they have fresh and new and frequent every day Hath not God then a just controversie with his people If the Lord draw out Judgements that were never heard of before and make us signs and wonders to the world and an astonishment to all Nations may we not justifie his proceedings If we exceed our Forefathers Sins what wonder is it if we feel Judgements that they were never sensible of CHAP. XXXIX What use Professours should make of this Gospel-Glass ANd now Professour to all thy former Sins Quarrel not with the Glass do not add this great abomination that having had the Glass of the Word so faithfully revealing many of thy sins to thee thou shouldst go away and strait forget what manner of man thou hast been Let not Satan tempt thee to quarrel with the enterprise for that the Glass is not broad enough to shew to thee all thy stains and deformities know here are enough presented to thy view to lay thee low enough in Hell without Repentance Perhaps also by thy corrupt reason thou canst plead for one or two particulars or bring it under debate whether they are stains or not But know to the confusion of thy face here are spots unquestionable spots discovered and such as are not the spots of Gods Children But wouldst thou improve this or any other such Glass for the good of thy Soul Let Gods Honour and thy precious Souls everlasting welfare perswade thee to receive in meekness and love the following Counsels 1. Reflect on all the particulars Improve it for promoting Consideration and Meditation that thou may'st see what are thine iniquities Do not behold only and so goe away be not contented with slight apprehensions but muse that the Fire may burn Consider how oft in the Bill of Attainder thy Conscience tells thee thou art guilty O! ponder these things in thine heart chew the Cud recoyl upon thy self Let the Lord hear one the more for thee crying out what have I done How have I provoked the Lord By meditation retain the memory of thy sins with all their aggravations as much as thou canst set past sins in present view and possess the sins of thy youth as if they were just now committed now track the abominations of your lives charge this duty upon thy own Soul as that which must be done as thou wilt answer it at thy peril before God and Angels Perhaps hitherto you have forgot your corrupt lives and hearts as you have your natural faces forthwith but let it be so no more for Christs sake Consider not only how many of these sins you have been guilty of but how frequently and for how many dayes or years thou hast lived in some of these abominations having oft been guilty of the same sin though perhaps thou knew'st it to be a sin and hast prayed and resolved against it And because the particulars may seem little sins though in a sense there is no little sin because there is no little God and sins have their accents and aggravations from the person who is affronted yet because it is with sin as it is with stones you may carry this stone and that stone without trouble with much case but when many little stones are heared together they become weighty and heavy to bear therefore I advise that by serious meditation you sum them up joyntly till your backs or rather your hearts be broken and you take up the language of the Prophet My sins are passed over my head Psal 38.4 they are become too heavy for me to bear Reflect not only on thy Pride and carelessness and other particular miscarriages but put all the Items into one main Sum that it may stoop thy heart 2. Confession Away now and present thy self before the great and holy God whom thou hast provoked by these by all these great abominations and upon thy knees give glory to him by confessing to him as many of thy sins as thou canst remember with all their aggravating circumstances Josh 7.19 It is the same advice that Joskuah gave to Aâ—chan tell God what thou hast done and what thouâ—â—ast left undone Hide it not from him Confess to God all thy low unworthy thoughts of him all thy enmity against him his Laws and People c. Go and confess what envy what malice what ranckour hath lain in thine heart against thy Neighbour Confess to the Lord how oft thou hast spoke evil of dignities of the blood-royal of the favourites of Heaven of the Sons and Daughters of the most High who were more righteous than thy self Many times thou hast brag'd with the Pharisee what sins thou hast not been guilty of now confess what thou hast been guilty of I know if thou art an Hypocrite thou art loth to bring it forth thou thinkest it will be a shame to thee But let me tell thee it is a shame
of your provocations humbled in the very dust be sure to keep Conscience tender Let not your convictions dye strike again and again smite on the thigh again and again whilst the Iron is hot This fire may be kept alive by bringing new fuel to it Labour exquisitely to afflict your Souls that you should be so foolish so vile as under Christs Livery to commit so great and so hideous abominations Take words and say O the Light that I have abused O the means of Grace that I have slighted O the little service that I have done to Christ O the many dis-services Let these things cut and grave and afflict and humble thy Soul exceedingly from morning to evening and from evening to morning till God be pacified towards thee beware lest the motions of a lazy heart cause thee to desist sooner A patient that hath had a long disease must continue in the use of the prescriptions till the ill humour be purged away 4. Indignation Let your sorrow be accompanied with detestation See all your sins and loath them and your selves too This is promised they shall loath their ways and doings which are not good O! how much sin have we confessed which yet we have secretly hug'd in our hearts Labour to have your hearts rise against your pride hypocrifie c. Hate sin not only for Hell but as Hell yea hate your selves for your sins yea hate your selves that you can hate your sins no more O that my hatred of my Lusts might be greater than ever my love was unto them I wish from my Soul Professors were more apprehensive of Gods Judgements that are upon them and the Nation for their sins I wish many of us were come up to the frames of the hard-hearted Jews and expressed so much tenderness as they did when Gods hand was heavy upon them their sins also were an heavy burden Hos 7.14 In their affliction they sought God early they mourned and humbled themselves very much though with the removal of their trouble their sorrows wore away However be not satisfied with this sorrow but labour for such sorrow as David had when he was wounded in his heart for sin though Nathan told him his sin was forgiven yet he continued his sorrows for his great transgressions Labour I beseech you for tears of hatred and indignation be greatly displeased with your selves because you have so foolishly and wretchedly dishonoured God and ventured your eternal undoing and if yet thine eyes be not like the Fish-ponds of Heshbon for thy sins take words and sament before God thine hardness of heart that thou shouldst so grievously offend and provoke God so good so gracious a God and that notwithstanding thine heart should remain unbroken 5. Supplication Let there be added hearty cries to God for pardon of all these and all other abominations Who forgives him that scorns to sue for Remission Here is your work in this day the Devil and a false heart will put you upon other work but this is your present work Cant. 1.6 They made me the keeper of the Vineyards but mine own Vineyard I have not kept But O! do not leave the work that God sets you about I know it is your duty to provide for the bodies of your Children but consider the danger of thy Soul what guilt thou art under and give the Lord no rest till he hath blotted out all thy sin and art assured that he will remember it no more Relieve not thy self with the general bounty of God or with the free grace and rich mercy of God whilst thou neglectest to cry to God for grace and mercy He will be sought unto by the house of Israel Prize thy condition that thou art alive to pray thou mightst have been in Hell there to howl for ever and ever Seek the Lord whilst he may be found Seek in time before it be too late And if thou doubtest whether thou hast an interest in Christ and the promises because of thy hideous transgressions yet remember the gracious words that tell once from the mouth of Christ to the Samaritan John 4.10 If thou didst know the gift of God thou wouldst have asked and he would have given thee living water Though thou art unworthy of Childrens bread and hast deserved to be cast forth among the dogs yet thou hast to do with a bountifull and mercifull Lord and therefore be not cast down so as to be discouraged from waiting on the Lord. It was ill said of him why should I wait on the Lord any longer There is no hope I would have thee take better words into thy mouth and say Lord I am unworthy to be the object of thy mercy unworthy to live worthy to be denyed because thou didst call and I did not hear therefore if I call thou mayst justly turn me off in thy fury thou mightest answer me by terrible things in righteousness But deal not with me according to my deservings O! make me the great instance of the power of thy grace let thy mercy in pardoning be great exceeding great O God! Do not delay the suing out thy pardon Without delay away quickly to the Throne of Grace Remember Faelix put off his work till some other time There is danger in delays lest your sense of sin and sorrow for it vanish and decay blow up the first sparks of grace lest they go out and dye again take the first advantages of the grace of God Hast thou an inclination to humble thy self to pray to seek Gods face improve it quickly lest the wrath of God who is nighly provoked already against thee break form upon thee and there be no remedy Do not you know that you have lost the sense of the love of God But have you also lost all sense of Gods wrath Do not you wonder you escape that you are yet alive that you are not free among the dead incorporated with the Hypocrites and damned crew Will you dare you go on in your hardness of heart Will you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath O! God forbid Lay by the world thy false friend thy treacherous Joab that hath smitten to the earth with its kisses and its smiles Here is a business on which thy life the life of thy precious Soul depends Prepare to meet thy God wrath is gone out from the Lord howl weep cry it may be you shall be hid is the day of the Lords wrath it may be your sins shall be forgiven Though the law be a looking-glass to shew you your spots the Baver under the law was made of looking-glosses yet it cannot cleanse you it is the Gospel alone that pardons Away ye wandring Sheep to the great Shepheard of your Souls Hebr. 13.20 great he is in affection and love to his flock he hath laid down his life for you he hath purchased you with his own bloud Nathans parable of the Ewe-Lamb is most true of Christ and
et vis coram pluribus arguere non es Corrector sed Proditor Augustin but not privately though Christ be so expresâ— for it If thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone though the Law of Charity binds us to cover our Brothers nakedness as much as we can Love covereth all sins yet some Doeg-like backbite their Neighbour and tell it to every one save him who should hear of it How few modestly affectionately and humbly in the most private manner communicate their fears of sins decayes and infirmities to the supposed delinquents Are not most too forward sinfully and wickedly to divulge their undue suspicions to others whereby the names of some suffer Souls lye neglected prejudices and heart-burnings are promoted Schisme is made in the body of Christ Though the Law of Wisdome bind us not to use more means than needs must if gentle private reproofs will serve to reclaim not to blazon infirmities yet Professours through pride envyâ— want of Charity at least want of wit publish on the house top what is done in a corner Herein we do as we hate to be dealt with were it our own concernment Hereby we make the Offendor to hate us and beget in him due prejudices against us viz. 〈◊〉 we thâ—â—â— to draw the blood of his Nameâ— yet how many Church-Members are peâ—canâ— herein It will be hard to make him believe thou comeâ— to heal 〈◊〉 Soul if thou haâ—â— already wounded his Name Have not some Church-Member 〈◊〉 â—or bringing it immediately to the 〈◊〉 Hereby innumerable evils ensue many are grieved many offended the party that is impeached stands on his guard pleads for his sin extenuates it or is strengthned in his sin by the uncharitable proceeding and irregular acting of the Brother who first took cognizance of the miscarriage and so Judah justifies Samaria Others reprove that those injuries that have been offered to the 〈◊〉 may be recompenced Reproveing selfishly rather than thaâ— their Brothers Soul may be healed and it appears â—erein if the wrong done them may be remidied little do they heed whether there be any other Repentance They reprove not to gain their Brother but to make gain of him and therefore Jehu-like they drive furiously in their own cases but in Gods they are dumb and dull enough Other busie-bodies would be thought very tender of Christs honour Reproveing only for disputable things they tithe Mint and Annise c. they reprove such things as are disputable and neglect to teprove where there are too many just accusations to lay in They will be very severe in censuring their Brethren for their Hair Cloathes or some controverted recreations and yet let them alone to live in worldliness sensuality lukewarmness pride sloth c. Others are so Magisterial in their reproofs Reproveing Magisterially as if they had forgotten that they are in the body as if they had no native corruption remaining in them they want the Spirit of meekness they have forgotten the Apostles Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault Gal. 6.1 ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the Spirit of meekness c. O! how haughtily do some carry it towards offending Brethren I wish you would sling the first stone at your selves If you are not guilty of the same offence yet you are of others at least you have the seed of the same Sin within you O that offending Brethren might know that it is only Conscience of duty that brings you to them and that it is love to their Souls puts you upon such displeasing work to your flesh But wo and alas How few will condescend The work is not managed with that humility as it ought and therefore no Brother is gained Others are so light frothy Reproveing lightly and unserious in this business that they spoyl all They do not invocate God to accompany them in the work they do not cry out who is sufficient They forget it is Soul-work they are imployed in they forget how abortive such labours have been they do not set upon it with that fear and trembling which they should Few rebuke with authority as having Gods Glory and mens Everlasting Salvation in their eye and hence when they come off from this work their Conscience smites them that they have been no more serious and fervent in a matter that concerns life and death Few continue their admonitions Putting an end to Reproof too soon and follow them till the Delinquent be brought to conjession repentance and amendment We soon tire and put the ill names of Doggs and Swine upon our offending Brethren to excase our sloth and to take off that diligence about their Sou's which their dulness and hardness of heart calls for We should in meekness instruct them though they oppose themselves We should bear with their present stubbornness and abuses and wait if God peradventure will give them repentance We forget how many years God waited on us though we were stout stubborn and refractory how patient and long-suffering he was unto us Though the more we love the less we are beloved though men even flye in our faces yet we should do as our Lord and his Ministers not presently shake off the dust of our feet against them 4. Not bearing Reproof Christianly How few behave themselves Christianly under Reproof When men come to you from the great God to discharge the duties they owe to your Souls your behaviour is such that none will meddle with such Patients to dress their wounds if the Lord had not charged them with this Commission How few receive a Reproof kindly and affectionately Not lovingly This makes me fear that there are more Hâ—pocrites in Churches than we are aware of It is a great mercy to be reproved As many as I love 〈◊〉 rebuke Rev. 3.19 To sin against Reproof is aggravated wickedness The revolters are profound 〈◊〉 make slaughter Hos 5.2 though I have been a râ—buker of them all It is an argument of â—atred not to reprove Levit. 19.15 Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour c. Yet how are they counted turbulent pragmatical void or affection rigâ—d and censorious who will not let them goe on in their sin He that hates reproof Prov. 15.10 shall surely dye There is not a sadder Omen that God hath an endless controversie with thee I know saith the Prophet to Amaziah the Lord hath determined to destroy thee 2 Chron. 25.16 because thou hast not hearkened to my reproof Others seem to earken to the Reprover and give him verbal thanks for his plain dealing but from that day their hearts boyl inwardly and they are fill'd with prejudice which will express it self when ever it meets with a fair opportunity How few do engage some Friend to be a faithful Monitor to them to be open-hearted to them
in telling them their faults We are so over-run with self-self-love that we think no stander by can discern so much as we and we are so unwilling to be censured that we stand aloof from having such a Looking glass near us to reflect our spots to us Few with David would count it a kindness for the righteous to smite them How few do amend upon a solemn serious reproof How few retire to their Closets Not obediently and there upon their knees bless God for emboldning any to tell them of their Sins and there beg pardon and strength to reform and enter into a religious vow by the grace of God to amend whatever is amiss 5. Minding only the plâ—â—â—ing of â—â—â—mselves Rom. 15.1 2 3. Most Professours seek to please themselves and not their Neighbour A man would think they never read we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself c. Pâ—ofessours are self-willed they will walk to the utmost of their liberty and if others be offended they little care for grieving and stumbling their weak Brethren They will tell you in the pride oâ— their hearts and loftiness of their Spirits the weak must be satisfied But what if they cannot O! how opposite are Professours to the Apostles condescending frame They think that in different câ—â—cumstantial things the weak should sollow the strong and therefore slight what they think of their actions Gal. 5.13 1 Cor. 8.1 But what saith the Apostle Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh Knowledge puffeth up but Charity edifyeth A firm and full knowledge of our liberty in things indifferent saith a learned man if it be seperated from Charity is apt to swell the mind with Pride and make men to despise and set at naught weak doubting and scrupulous Brethren but Charity is carefull to avoyd what may stumble the weak and cause them to fall into Sin and therefore judge this 〈…〉 Rom. 14.13 22. that no man put a stumbling or occasion to full in his brothers way by the use of â—â—differerts Hast thou faith concerning the â—â—â—ullness of the use of things indifferent for of them the Apostle speaks have it unto thy self before God make not a vain publication thereof to the exasperating grieving or stumbling of the weak who may by thy example even against Conscience use the same liberty that thou dost and so through thy knowledge shall thy weak Brother perish 1 Cor. 8.11 i. e. thy using this liberty hath a tendency to destroy him You may think this is no great matter But the same Apostle informs you 1 Cor. 8.11 12. Rom. 14.20 that you hereby sin against Christ you destroy the work of God the Soul of thy Brother and no man on earth can priviledge you from the wrath of God if you destroy them with your meats with the use of your â—iberty for whom Christ dyed and therefore the Apostle professeth 1 Cor. 8.13 if meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no flesh while the world standeth lest I make my Brother to offend O! that men were sâ—â—â—uole as Paul in the condescention of their Charity But alas All men seek their own things if they are satisfied concerning the lawfulness of the things they look no farther they little mind the souls of their Brethren but are securing themselves some outward peace and earthly advantages Few naturally care for the good of others for the glory of God and the edification of their Brethren 6. Valuing Christians by externals How are Christians valued and preferred by externals rather than by internals By gold-rings by outward honours and privileges rather than by their graces They who should have most oâ— your esteem love and respect have least A rich Formalist's company is more prized than an humble mortified poor Christian 's The miscarriage that was in the Apostles dayes is descended to this age and is a blot upon many of the Professours of it Jam. 2.1 O my Brethren Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons How are mens judgements blinded by some external glory and appearance so that a little in a great rich honourable man is counted much and much grace in a poor man is despised 1 Cor. 11.22 over-looked and accounted but littieâ— How do the rich contemn the poor How are the poor neglected in visits But a rich though formâ—l Professour shall have many Friends How common is it for the rich to enjoy Ordinances together and exclude the poor You goe to the houses of the rich but seldome goe over the threshold of the poor and yet what said Christ to him that bade him Luke 14.12 13 14. When thou makest a Dinner or Supper call not thy Friends nor thy Brethren neither thy Kinsmen nor thy rich Neighbours lest they also bid thee again and recompence be made thee but when thou makest a Feast call the poor the maimed the lame the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompence thee but thou shalt be recompenced at the resurrection of the just You do not value men by their eminency in grace but in parts and worldly endowments as if gold did set men off more than grace Those who have most of Caesar's Image are held in higher reputation than those who have most of God's Image What a reflexion is this upon the great and blessed God 2 Cor. 5.16 Paul durst know no man after the flesh yet dare you esteem men by their fleshly greatness in the world When you should fix your affections where you see most grace you are taken where you see either most of the world or most gifts prudence learning or most morality You know 1 Cor. 12. that you bestow not most honour on the uncomely parts on them who have least of worldly Privileges though the Apostle yea God expects it How rough and rigorous are you to poor men if over-taken in a fault how is his offence aggravated how severely is he censured But if a rich mans transgression be the same or more to be aggravated from the light it hath affronted and from the danger of its scandal yet how is it past by extenuated if not excused and pardoned O! This having mens persons in admiration over-reverencing men for worldly things is a great disparagement to the grace of God as if riches and honours were more excellent than Religion and Grace They who are highly descended or who relate to the Courts of Princes or who have their stores in their houses are in greater esteem than others who are descended from above who are related to the God of 〈◊〉 who are Favourites in the New Jerusalem and who have store of grace in their hearts O my Brethren Jam. 2.2 3 4 5. If there come into your
own our Sins to be the Incendiaries Jer. 8.6 saying What have I done And What have I done to stop the mouths of so many of Gods faithful Ministers to unsheath the Sword to bring forth the destroying Angel to kindle the dreadful Fire in London Are there not such sins amongst us for which God hath plagued much people If secret sins of particular Persons have drawn down wrath on whole Nations Why not thy scandalous sins Say no more Such Opposition Oppression Idolatry uncleaness c. will bring in misery as an armed man but say there is danger lest God should make an utter end of poor England for my pride for my unthankfulness for my trusting in an Arm of flesh for my back-slidings O! how many have I caused to fall by the Sword and how many by the Pestilence And how many have I caused to be ruined by the Fire Verily if thou art guilty of no other sin save pride yet thou canst not clear thy self from being one of Englands Incendiaries O! how was the wrath of God upon Jerusalem and Judah because Hezekiah's heart was lifted up But Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him 2 Chron. 32.25 for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem 3. No Repentance no returns of mercy but more wrath Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing without repentance the mercies you are deprived of because of your sins will never be returned or not in mercy yea greater judgements will follow Unless you return unto God from whom you have departed God will not return unto your Souls If ye forsake him 2 Chron. 15.2 he will forsake you imports as much as if you continue to forsake him he will continue to forsake you If you repent not God will not return your liberties your trade his own Ordinances in purity and power or at least he will not return these or any other mercies you have sinned away in mercy But you may expect greater judgements than ever yet you saw to fall not only upon your selves and families but upon the Land Think not that they were the greatest sinners in England upon whom the Sword or Pestilence or Fire fell Remember Christs I tell you Nay Luk. 13.3 5. Luk. 6.25 but except you repent you shall all likewise perish Wo unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep And will you run the hazard of this dreadful Wo Will you run the hazarding of perishing all and altogether Is it not better to mourn now than to cry and howl in the pit of Hell for ever God hath determined within his own breast nay he hath expressed this to be his pleasure to the Children of men that sooner or later all shall mourn for sin either in this life or in the next And is it not better to feel the weight here than on a death bed or in Hell What said a Ruffian once when in the midst of his jovial Companions he clapt his hand on his breast and cryed out well one day I must know what a wounded Conscience meaneth God is resolute in this you shall one time or other find it an evil and bitter thing to provoke him And shall this consideration nothing move you I know this should not be the chief ground of your sorrow But yet Christ was no legal Preacher when he cryed out sin no more least a worse thing happen to you Go thou sluggard to the Ant provide in Summer for the Winter But O the great cheats that poor souls put upon themselves they hope though they repent not though they remain careless worldly c. yet others are not so careless as they though they fast not yet they hope some do though they spend not days in prayer they hope others do and they hope to fare the better for them This is like the Doctrine of Rome the Romanists teach that there are some opera paenalia some penitential works that you may have others to do for you and yet fare as well as if you did them your selves But for my part I shall as soon believe that I shall be cured of the stone in the bladder or of a filthy Leprosie by anothers taking Physick for me as that I shall be saved by anothers repentance O! what folly is this to take relief and sanctuary in others fervent Petitions and deprecations of wrath whilst thou thy self cryest out Soul take thine ease store is laid up for thee by others Alas how dost thou know what others are a doing Doe they blow the Trumpet when they go to fast the more likely it is that they be Hypocrites But hath not God said Ezek. 9.4 Go through the midst of the City through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark only upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof and again Son of man when the Land sinneth against me by transgressing grievously then will I stretch out mine hand upon it and will break the staff of the bread thereof and will send a famine upon it Ezek. 14.13 14. and will cut off man and beast from it Though these three men Noah Daniel and Job were in it they should deliver but their own Souls by their righteousness saith the Lord God 4. Impenitents lose all they do and suffer for God Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing so long as you are impenitent all you do and suffer for God is abominable in his sight Hardness of heart is a nasty disease it is like a Leprosie that makes all to shun a man If you had such a disease that all would abhor you would it not humble you to the very dust your impenitency makes you neither fit company for God nor his Saints you are loathsome in the sight of both whilst you are under so much guilt and yet insensible of it A tender broken hearted Christian is lovely in Gods and his peoples eyes but how ugly a sight is it to see a daring bold insensible sinner persisting in a course of sin without repentance If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes c. in his righteousness that he hath done shall he live c. But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness Ezek. 18.21 22 24. 2 Ep. of John v. 8. Gal. 3.4 Their persons are loathed and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned And is it nothing to you to lose the things you have wrought Is it nothing to suffer and to suffer so many things in vain 5. Should not your hearts be broken for and from your sins seeing so long as you are impenitent God doth not only